The Pacific-10 Conference is one of the toughest golf conferences in the country — but it’s also got a touch of inconsistency.
At the second round of the wide-open Pac-10 women’s golf championships at the Eugene Country Club Tuesday, every team except Stanford had a swing of at least five strokes from the first round. Most teams — including Oregon — improved their first round scores.
“Today we were much more comfortable,” said Oregon head coach Renee Baumgartner.
Every Oregon player improved on her first-round outing except senior Anika Heuser, and the team finished fifth after 36 holes of play. The most dramatic improvements were by junior Jerilyn White and seniors Angie Rizzo and Kylie Wilson. All three players shot six strokes lower than their first round scores. White had the team’s best score Tuesday, an even-par 72.
Heuser, despite shooting four strokes higher than Monday’s round, still remains only a stroke behind tournament leaders Amanda Moltke-Leth of UCLA and Mikaela Parmlid of Southern California.
“We hung in there today,” Heuser said. “If we can post another four good scores tomorrow I think we have a chance of doing really well.”
With all the jockeying that took place Tuesday, the Ducks find themselves within a mere seven strokes of second place. Considering that Oregon gained 11 strokes Tuesday, second place isn’t out of the question.
“We’re going to go out and do the best job we possibly can,” Baumgartner said about resuming play today. “I think we could have our best finish ever.”
In 13 tries, the women have never placed higher than fourth at the Pac-10 Championships.
Everything worked in the Ducks’ favor Tuesday to make the race as close as it was. California shot a 312 Tuesday, 11 strokes worse than their first-round score, and dropped to seventh overall. USC topped that, shooting an abysmal 18 strokes over their first round score to drop from first to third. The Women of Troy are now only three strokes ahead of Oregon.
Arizona was one of those teams that held their ground on Tuesday, and the No. 1 Wildcats now lead the tournament by five strokes over UCLA.
Arizona head coach Todd McCorkle commented on the difficulty of the Eugene Country Club.
“Mentally this is a very tough course to play,” he said. “A lot of bad things can happen out there.”
Obviously, other teams had much more trouble on the tricky layout of the course than the Wildcats.
Besides Cal and USC, Washington State had the most dramatic difference in the second round, shooting 17 strokes better than Monday. The Cougars still managed to finish in last place.
The surprise of the tournament remains the poor play of No. 4 Arizona State. The Sun Devils, despite a strong second round, are in sixth, seven strokes behind the fifth-place Ducks.
The women conclude the 54-hole tournament today at the Eugene Country Club. Oregon tees off at 10:06 a.m.