The month of April has brought two extremes for the No. 23 Oregon men’s golf team.
On April 3, the Ducks dominated the Western Intercollegiate and won their first tournament of the season — beating out second-place Washington by 17 strokes.
On April 14, however, Oregon stubbed its toe and finished tied for 19th at the Thunderbird Invitational — its lowest finish of the season.
Reason for concern? Nah, just a “hiccup,” according to head coach Steve Nosler.
“I was tremendously disappointed in how poorly we played, but I don’t think it’s an indication of the overall ability of this team,” Nosler said.
Which brings the Ducks to this weekend’s U.S. Intercollegiate in the Bay Area at the Stanford Golf Course.
The tournament will be Oregon’s last tune-up for the April 27-29 Pacific-10 Conference Championships in every way, shape and form. The Ducks will not only compete in the same city and on the same 6,786-yard, par-71 course that the Pac-10s will use, but the field for this weekend also includes every Pac-10 team.
Of those 10, No. 4 Arizona State, No. 6 Southern California and No. 18 Arizona join Oregon as the only teams ranked in this week’s top 25. The Ducks remained in the top 25 for the second straight week despite their poor showing last week in Tempe, Ariz.
“I feel our team matches up very well with the Stanford Golf Course, probably better than the Karsten Course at Arizona State,” Nosler said. “That’s not to make an excuse for what happened last weekend.”
The six-man team that will try to get the Ducks back on track includes senior Matt Genovese, juniors Aaron Byers and Brandon Harnden, sophomores John Ellis and Chris Carnahan and redshirt freshman Mike Sica.
“We’ve got some talent on this team, and I think we’re still in great shape at the present time,” said Nosler, who has led the Ducks to five NCAA West Regionals in his eight seasons at Oregon.
Last year, Oregon ended up in fourth place at the U.S. Intercollegiate with a score of 878. Oregon’s only win at this tournament came in 1993.
Action will begin Saturday with 36 holes and will conclude Sunday with the final 18 holes.