Who is John Ellis, and where did he come from?
That was the question on the lips of everyone at the Husky Invitational this week as Ellis, Oregon’s junior college transfer, won the tournament in a playoff with Washington’s Joey Ramos Tuesday.
Ellis, a sophomore transfer from Gavilian Community College in Gilroy, Calif., shot a one-over-par 217 over the 54-hole tournament. His individual crown was the second for the Ducks this year, adding to Chris Carnahan’s victory at the Northwest Classic two weeks ago.
Oregon finished second in the 10-team field — its second top-5 finish in two tournaments so far this year. The Ducks finished fifth at the Northwest Classic.
Junior co-captain Brandon Harnden took fifth, his best-ever showing at Oregon, while sophomore Carnahan finished 13th. Senior Matt Genovese ended up in 20th, while freshman Brad Mombert finished 44th and junior Aaron Byers finished 49th.
Carnahan came back from a poor first day and missed the top-10 by one stroke.
Oregon head coach Steve Nosler had been disappointed with his team after the first round but was happy with Oregon’s final-round performance.
“I’m proud of [the team],” Nosler said. “We made some adjustments from yesterday and the end result was a solid second-place finish.”
The Ducks proved once again that they could compete with top-ranked teams. Pacific-10 Conference foes Stanford, Washington, UCLA and California all fell behind Oregon at the Husky Invitational.
Washington finished seven strokes behind Oregon, in third place. UCLA finished fourth, 14 strokes behind the Ducks. California ended up fifth, 19 strokes behind, and Stanford finished ninth of 10 teams, 28 strokes behind the Ducks. Other Pac-10 teams included Washington State, which finished fifth with California, and Oregon State, which finished eighth.
Beating those Pac-10 schools, Nosler said, “carries a lot of weight when the NCAA selection committee hands out its bids next spring.”
If the Ducks continue to play this well, a trip to the NCAA West Regionals in May will be inevitable. That tournament is being held at the Trysting Tree Golf Course in Corvallis, where the Ducks played so well at the Northwest Classic. If the Ducks can place at the West Regionals, they will accomplish a prize that escaped them last season — a trip to the NCAA Championships.
Oregon started off its 1999-2000 campaign in almost the same fashion as this season. The Ducks finished second at the Northwest Collegiate, eighth at the Pacific Invitational and second at the Husky Invitational, all in September of ’99. The golfers went on to eight more top-10 performances on the season.
Oregon will square off with top-ranked teams again at the Pepperdine Intercollegiate in Oxnard, Calif., from October 9-10. Pepperdine won the Husky Invitational by five strokes over Oregon after leading by ten strokes before the final round. The Ducks beat the Waves out for fifth place at the Northwest Classic.