NCAA Southwest: UCLA on top

By Sean Martin, Golfweek A slow start turned into an exciting finish for No. 4 UCLA, the regional's top seed. The Bruins' four scorers played the par-5 17th in six under par Thursday. Anton Arboleda made double-eagle by holing out with a 3-wood from about 260 yards. Pontus Widegren, playing in the following group, hit 3-wood to 2 feet to make eagle. "We didn't get off to a very fast start, which you can do out here, but we played steady all day long and then 'boom,' " head coach Derek Freeman said. "That made the difference." UCLA has a 10-shot lead over No. 8 Duke after the first round. Freeman is cautiously optimistic, though: "There's still a lot of golf left and a lot of good teams here," he said. "We have to play well two more days." Both Widegren (64) and Manav Shah (68) had bogey-free rounds. Widegren had four birdies and his eagle on 17, while Shah made two birdies and 16 pars. UCLA's four scorers only had four over-par holes. Arboleda's double-eagle was preceded by a double-bogey at the par-3 16th; he shot 67. Jonathan Garrick (69) had two bogeys, a double-bogey and five birdies. UCLA was the only team to have four sub-70 scores Thursday.