It may only be the first week of the term, but for the Oregon women’s golf team the tests are already here.
With the Pacific-10 Conference Championships looming in less than three weeks, the Ducks understand the importance of this weekend’s stacked Ping/ASU Invitational in Tempe, Ariz.
“It’s another test; another midterm for us,” Oregon head coach Shannon Rouillard said.
Oregon has not competed since March 13 and must shake off any rust it has in a hurry, as it will face a 15-team field that boasts 12 teams ranked in the top 50 of the latest Mastercard Collegiate Golf poll. Among the ranked Pac-10 teams in Tempe will be No. 2 Arizona, No. 4 Southern California and No. 5 Stanford.
“It is one of the toughest fields we will play in this year, but we need to be playing in tournaments where we are forced to play well against these teams,” Rouillard said.
Beginning today, the tournament will last through Sunday and will be played on the same 6,090-yard Karsten Golf Course that the Pac-10 Championships will use on April 23-25.
The probable starters for the Ducks include senior leaders Jerilyn White, Dawn Berry and Claire Hunter. The rest of the Oregon contingent will consist of junior Kathy Cho, sophomore Megan Heckeroth and redshirt freshman Lacy Erickson.
White, an All-America candidate, was ranked as the 55th individual in the nation by Mastercard Collegiate Golf. The senior from Salem posted her fourth consecutive top-20 finish in Oregon’s tied-for-11th showing at the UCLA Bruin Classic on March 12-13.
White is the Ducks’ lone returnee from Oregon’s NCAA Tournament team a season ago, a destination that Rouillard says is still a possibility for this year’s team.
“We need to keep focusing on doing the things that we need to do as a team that will get us to nationals,” Rouillard said.
Originally, this weekend’s competition in Tempe, Ariz., was going to be Oregon’s final preparation before the Pac-10s. But in an attempt to gain more experience for the team, Oregon is now scheduled to compete in the Peg Barnhard California Collegiate on April 13-14. The added tournament will take place on the Stanford Golf Course.
The Ducks know that there is no time to waste in their quest for consistency, as following the Pac-10s come the NCAA Regionals on May 10-12 and possibly a date in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., at the NCAA Championships on May 23-26.
“We took a couple of days off for spring break, and I think the girls have come back rejuvenated for the last two months of the season and ready to work really hard on their short game, because that is what got us to nationals last year,” Rouillard said. “It will probably boil down to that again.”