Oregon men’s golf came up just short of its fifth straight tournament win at the Amer Ari Invitational on Saturday. The No. 2 Ducks finished with a three round score of 35-under – three strokes behind the tournament winner, No. 25 Arizona State – at the par 72 Waikoloa King’s Course in Hawaii.
Each of the top four teams came from the Pac-12. No. 19 Washington finished second at 36-under and No. 15 USC tied with Oregon for third at 35-under.
Brandon McIver tied Texas’ Scottie Scheffler for third on the individual leaderboard at 13-under. The nation’s top collegiate golfer Cheng-Tsung Pan from Washington scored a 17-under to win the event.
Oregon did make a late push to win the event in the third round. Aaron Wise scored a team best five-under, while McIver and Jonathan Woo both scored four-under in the final round. The team’s 16-under 272 was the fourth best score in the third round.
Wise finished at seven-under on the event and in a three-way tie for No. 23 overall. Zach Foushee scored six-under and Woo finished at three-over. No. 11 Thomas Lim ended the third round at even par, and scored five-under for the tournament.
Although the Ducks’ undefeated streak will end with the third place finish, Oregon was still impressive at the event. After two months off, the Ducks had a top three finisher and were just three strokes away from forcing a playoff with Arizona State.
Oregon shouldn’t lose much respect from the polls considering the overall strength of the event. The Ducks finished ahead of multiple top tier teams, such as No. 4 Texas, No. 7 UCLA and No. 13 Auburn.
The Ducks will return to Eugene for a week of practice before heading to La Quinta, California for The Prestige at PGA-West February 5-7.
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