Oregon’s golf teams are hoping the phrase “youth over experience” will apply to their 2000-01 campaigns.
Each team is led by its most experienced team members, but each team will rely on the play of the inexperienced to carry them to the NCAA Championships.
The men are captained this year by T.J. Duncan the Carson City, Nev., native who broke through as a Duck last year after transferring from Nevada, and Brandon Harnden, a junior who posted impressive scores last year. Duncan and Harnden will attempt to fill the large shoes of All-Pacific Ten Conference golfer Ryan Lavoie and Andrew Tredway, the senior co-captains of last season.
The Ducks will shoot for their third trip to the NCAA Championships in four years. To get there, they will need to survive the NCAA West Regionals, held May 17-19 in Corvallis, at the Trysting Creek Golf Course. Oregon already had a chance to see Trysting Creek at the Northwest Classic on September 11-12 in its first tournament of the season.
The stars of the team’s supporting cast include sophomore Chris Carnahan, who held the second-lowest scoring average on the team last season, as a freshman. If he can continue to play at the same level as last year, Carnahan will step right into the spotlight vacated by Lavoie.
Sophomore Aaron Byers has played well in big tournaments, and senior Matt Genovese played in most of the team’s spring tournaments last year.
The biggest wild-card for the Ducks will be top recruit and Eugene resident Jimmy White. If head coach Steve Nosler decides to play White instead of redshirt him, the former South Eugene High star could make an immediate impact on the team. White, who was named to the Junior America’s Cup team, faced Jeff Quinney in the finals of the Oregon state tourney before Quinney went on to win the prestigious U.S. Amateur in August.
Nosler says his team will continue its winning ways of last season, and take that extra step needed to send them to the NCAA Championships in May.
“I think we’ll be pretty good,” Nosler said. “We’ll certainly be as good as last year, and I thought we were pretty good last year.”
The women will rely on a pair of experienced Ducks to help lead them to the NCAA Championships for the second straight season.
The first is senior Jerilyn White. The Salem native was the only Junior to play on last season’s senior-laden team. She will try to turn her experience into victories as she picks up where Pam Sowden, Kylie Wilson, Angie Rizzo and Anika Heuser left off.
The second experienced team member is actually new head coach, Shannon Rouillard. The one-time Oregon golfer was a walk-on ten years ago, a team captain four years later, an assistant coach to Renee Baumgartner last year and finally, a head coach. Taking over for the most successful coach in Oregon golf history, Baumgartner, Rouillard says she knows she’s taking over a program approaching its peak.
“Renee has done a lot of good things with the program here,” Rouillard said. “By no means did she leave it in shambles.”
Besides White, two other seniors join the team’s efforts this year. Dawn Berry and Kimi Cunningham will tryout with the rest of the team, but Rouillard said she expected them to make an impact.
“I’m expecting (the seniors) to step it up a notch and contribute,” Rouillard said. “I’m going to need them.”
Just like the team will need White and Rouillard to guide them back to the NCAA Championships once more.