An up and down season for Oregon men’s golf filled with high expectations has reached its pinnacle.
The Ducks finished second out of 14 teams at the Tucson Regional Wednesday, earning a spot in the NCAA Championships, which UO is hosting at Eugene Country Club May 27-June 1. The Ducks have a significant home-course advantage, having practiced at Eugene Country Club extensively throughout the regular season.
Five of 14 teams in each of the six regionals advance to NCAA Championships.
“There’s definitely some stress and some pressure on the kids, but it also tends to bring out the best in them, too,” head coach Casey Martin said before regionals.
Martin’s assessment proved to be true.
The Ducks hung around the top three over the first two rounds, but distanced themselves Wednesday in the third round. The lineup of Aaron Wise, Zach Foushee, Sulman Raza, Thomas Lim and Edwin Yi combined for 21 birdies compared to eight bogeys over the final round. Their final round score of 17-under 274 is the third-best regional round in program history.
Lim carried Oregon for much of the first two rounds as he shot three-under and four-under, and briefly trailed eventual champion, Stanford’s Franklin Huang, by one stroke. Lim ultimately finished the tournament tied for fourth (-6).
Wise shot even par in the first and second round, but exploded for for seven birdies, including three consecutive on holes 4, 5 and 6. Wise (-5) placed seventh, adding another top 10 finish to his decorated season.
Not far behind, Raza finished tied for 12th at one-under. After carding two bogeys on the back nine, Raza finished the round strong, shooting birdies on the 16th and 17th holes.
Yi matched Wise’s five-under in the last round, shooting par or better for the round. Playing in his biggest tournament to date, the freshman finished tied for 22nd (+1).
Foushee, who returned to the lineup after sitting out of the Pac-12 Championships due to injury, rebounded from a seven-over round two and shot three-under in the final round. Foushee placed in a tie for 38th.
Joining the Ducks in Eugene will be Tucson Regional champion Stanford, UAB, Cal and Wake Forest. Pac-12 foes Arizona State and USC also qualified for NCAA Championships out of the Albuquerque Regional.
The Ducks begin stroke play of NCAA Championships May 27. Fans interested in attending can purchase tickets on GoDucks.com. All session tickets are $20 and single day tickets are $5.

Want to watch the Ducks compete for a national title next week at @EugeneCC? Get your tickets here: https://t.co/ZhNBYsOvEL #GoDucks
— Oregon Men’s Golf (@OregonMGolf) May 18, 2016

Follow Will Denner on Twitter @Will_Denner