Behind a brilliant weekend by Yuki Moriyama, the Oregon men’s golf team finished in fifth place at this week’s Pac-12 Men’s Golf Championships held in Santa Rosa, CA.
Moriyama finished in third place, shooting a 15-under 273 on the weekend and becoming the first Duck since 2017 to place in the top five at the conference championships — all as a freshman.
He set the bar high on day one of the tournament, shooting a 10-under 135 through two rounds. Tom Gueant, Nate Stember, and Owen Avrit all followed by shooting even on the day to place Oregon at third after day one.
The Ducks, and Moriyama, continued the hot play during round two. After shooting a 2-under 70, Moriyama stole first place while Avrit one upped him by golfing a 4-under 68 to move him up to 14th place.
Solid rounds from Gueant and Stember allowed the Ducks to maintain their strong positioning before the final day, as they were in third place.
The final round on Wednesday was statistically Oregon’s worst of the tournament, but it was still enough to make history. As a team, Oregon shot 359 on the round to take them down to fifth place, giving them their third top-five finish at the Pac-12’s in the last four years.
Moriyama, again, was in the center of the action shooting a 3-under 69. Not too far behind him was Avrit who shot a 2-under 70 to end his week with a 13th place finish.
The best performance of the fourth round came from Gueant, whose 5-under 67 was good enough to move him into the top 20, as he found himself tied for 17th.
Stember followed with a 2-over 74 to cap of his weekend with a tied for 44th performance. Craig Ronne and Greg Solhaug rounded out the six for the Ducks, finishing in 56th and 63rd place respectively.
The Arizona Wildcats went on to win the tournament by shooting 41-under as a team.
Still, a lot for Oregon to be excited for as Moriyama and the Ducks will look to continue their hot play when they will compete at the NCAA Regionals on Monday, May 17, with the location still unknown.
