Oregon coach Casey Martin got some good performances from his squad on the first day of the NCAA West Regional in Tempe, Ariz., but the Ducks find themselves in need of some great golf in order to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Oregon, the No. 20 seed in the 27-team tournament, sits in 23rd place after the first round. At four over par, the Ducks are 24 shots back of leaders UCLA and 11 strokes above the cut. Their team score of 292 is four strokes higher than their worst round on the same Karsten Golf Course at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational in April.
Oregon has a round today and the final round tomorrow to move up and secure one of the ten berths to the national tournament.
“Maybe we were a little nervous in the beginning,” Martin said in a release. “This is a team with virtually no NCAA experience, so hopefully we got that out of our systems.”
The last time Derek Sipe started a tournament in Tempe, it was a round to remember. Sipe, who holds the Oregon record for the lowest single round, shot a seven-under 65 in the first round of the Thunderbird tournament last month. This time out, Sipe took a while to warm up, scoring his first birdie on his fifth hole. In a microcosm of his up-and-down season, he bogeyed the next hole, followed two holes later by a birdie and a double bogey.
Sipe then birdied the first two holes after the turn and pared the rest of the round to finish at one under.
Playing in his first collegiate tournament since the middle of March, Ted Whitney also had a roller-coaster day. The Eugene native carded two birdies in his first five holes only to score three bogeys before heading to the front nine.
Whitney erased his bogey on No. 4 by shooting an eagle on the par-5 5th. The senior finished his round with a birdie on No. 7 and entered the clubhouse tied with Sipe at one under. The pair are tied for 56th place, seven shots behind the individual leader, UCLA’s Erik Flores.
Junior Joey Benedetti continued his solid play, shooting a one-over 73 in his first round. Benedetti scored par on his first seven holes followed by a birdie on No. 17. He then suffered what turned out to be a common fate for the Ducks: a double bogey on the 18th hole. In addition to Benedetti and Sipe, Matt Ma and Zeke Reyna each used six shots on the par 4 hole.
“We got off to a really poor start and then got it back together a little bit on our second nine,” Martin said.
Reyna and Ma had a tough time throughout the round. Although he managed three birdies on Thursday, Reyna also had to swallow three double bogeys on his way to finish the day with a five-over 77. Ma continued his shaky play from the Pacific-10 Championships April 23-25, where he averaged more than 77 strokes per round. On Tuesday, Ma shot five over par on his front nine and despite making three birdies after the turn, he fell further behind, finishing the day with a score of 78. The low point came on the par-4 No. 3, where Ma had to endure a triple bogey.
To get into contention for a place in the national championships, Oregon will have to get hot in a hurry. Not only are the Ducks 11 shots off the qualifying pace, they will have to leapfrog 11 teams, seven of which are ranked in the top 50. Arizona and Washington are also in the hunt for a spot to the NCAA Championships, one and three strokes above the cut respectively. The other six Pac-10 teams in the tournament are all in the top ten after the first round, including Oregon State, who entered the tournament as the 18th seed.
“We simply must come out and play better tomorrow afternoon before we worry about what place we’re in or how many shots back we are,” Martin said.
In addition to fighting the rest of the field for one of the ten nationals berths, Oregon will also have to battle the weather. The Ducks are scheduled to tee off Friday in the midday heat; temperatures close to 100 degrees are expected in Tempe for the second straight day.
Ducks need to be the ball to get back into Regional hunt
Daily Emerald
May 17, 2007
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