The men’s golf team takes the greens this week at the Hawaii-Hilo Intercollegiate in Waikoloa, Hawaii. Matt Ma leads the Ducks into his home state as they look to compete against two of the nation’s top five teams, No. 2 Oklahoma State and No. 3 Georgia Tech.
Other Ducks competing this weekend will be seniors Gregg LaVoie and Justin St. Clair and sophomores Joey Benedetti and Derek Sipe.
The team traveled to Waikoloa last Saturday and had its first practice round yesterday. None of the five golfers competed at the Ping Arizona Intercollegiate, where the Ducks finished last with 66 over par last weekend.
Ma, a junior from of Aiea, Hawaii, takes the Ducks to compete against five nationally ranked teams. The field includes Pacific-10 Conference rivals No. 7 Arizona State, No. 21 Washington, No. 22 Pepperdine, as well as unranked opponents Oregon State, USC and Stanford.
“It’s a pretty good field and we need to show we’re capable of competing with these teams,” Oregon coach Steve Nosler said in a University press release. “We really haven’t put three solid rounds together yet this season, so that would be one of the things we’ll be attempting to accomplish with a pretty veteran group we’re taking to Hawaii.”
The native Hawaiian started last season with a career-best second-place finish in the Northwest Collegiate Classic, shooting a 208. After shooting a 65 in the first round, Ma was two shots away from Jimmy White’s school-record set at the same event in 2003.
Invited to the All-American Tourney last Fall, LaVoie will search for consistency as the Ducks get back into the swing of tournament play. He is the younger brother of former Duck Ryan LaVoie, who won five tournaments during his time at Oregon.
The Ducks will also rely on senior St. Clair to play with consistency; he has been one of Oregon’s top golfers since the 2003-04 season. The Springfield native and team captain has been a part of Oregon’s success for the last two seasons. Last season he tied for fifth at the Pac-10 Championships.
Benedetti and Sipe made immediate impacts for the Ducks their freshman years. The two have been significant this fall season as well. Benedetti competed with some of the upperclassmen on the Ducks with an average of 75 strokes per round.
Sipe came to Oregon as a highly touted prep golfer and now the sophomore will be asked to stroke birdies.
The two sophomores have been staples for the Ducks in the fall, finishing atop the individual standings for the Ducks. At this event last year Sipe finished in a tie for seventh.
The Ducks take the playing field today and will be in Waikoloa until Friday. This is the last time the team will see action until Feb. 27-28 at the Ashworth Invitational in Thousand Oaks, California.