Oregon’s Landon Banks closed out his second round in the top 10, but Oregon’s golfers find themselves at the bottom of the leaderboard at The Prestige.
Banks shot 2 under par for his first round, and was tied for fifth after nailing an eagle on the second hole. The Sophomore from Beaverton, who’s playing his best golf of the fall season, could secure his first his top 20, if not top 10, finish at a tournament.
Banks finished his second round with a 3 over par on his last four holes.
Zeke Reyna, the Ducks’ junior transfer from Southern Methodist University, shot even par for this second round and ended his 5 over par day with a birdie on 16.
Reyna is second amongst Oregon players, with the rest of the Ducks shooting double digits over par.
Joey Benedetti, fresh off his top 10 finish at the Alister MacKenzie, struggled with two second round double bogeys.
Benedetti knocked in a birdie on 9 after a double bogey on 6.
Oregon needs a strong performance from the junior today to pull themselves out of their 14 place position.
The Ducks also need more from Matt Ma, who is 15 over after Monday’s initial two rounds. The senior shot a double bogey on 13, but what hurt the Ducks the most was Ma’s quadruple bogey to open his round.
Ma is two weeks removed from his win at the Northwest Collegiate Classic, and head coach Casey Martin will need his senior to play to that same level in today’s final round.
Derek Sipe rounds out the Ducks’ varsity five, but his 17 over par for day one will need improvement to climb out of the bottom five.
Leading the tournament is Martin’s alma mater Stanford at 7 under par. The Cardinal will have to hold off UCLA, which rallied with a 12 under second round to finish 6 under heading into Today’s final round.
UC-Irvine dropped to third at 2 under, after being in a three-way tie for first with Stanford and University of Minnesota.
Jay Choe is heading UC Irvine’s effort at The Prestige. He leads the tournament with 7 under par.
Stanford’s Zack Miller is one shot back in second place after finishing his first round in a tie for eighth.
University of Minnesota’s Ben Pisani rounds out the top three at 4 under.