John Ellis made sure there wouldn’t be another final-round meltdown for the Oregon men’s golf team.
The senior co-captain finished in a tie for second place, and the Ducks climbed into fifth place Tuesday at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational at the Meadow Club in Fairfax, Calif. Ellis, who finished with an 8-under par 205, had rounds of 68 and 72 Tuesday to complement his personal-best round of 65 Monday.
“John had a very good tournament,” Oregon head coach Steve Nosler said. “It was exciting to have John lead our team and to be in a position to challenge for the individual title.”
It was the first tournament of the fall in which the Ducks improved their ranking over the second day. The Ducks jumped from eighth place to fifth, finishing with a 7-over 859, 15 strokes behind tournament winner Fresno State. UCLA and Northwestern tied for second, three strokes back.
“Overall, we played pretty fair,” Nosler said. “The course was playing a lot tougher today due to the wind and some challenging pin placements, but we did ourselves some good down the road by beating a lot of teams from our district.”
Players had to finish the second round, which was postponed due to darkness Monday, before they started on the final 18 holes. Fresno State senior Nick Watney, ranked No. 1 in the nation by the latest Golfweek/ Sagarin poll, was the individual winner with an 11-under 202. Watney finished three strokes ahead of Ellis, No. 3 ranked Northwestern junior Tom Johnson and UCLA junior Roy Moon.
Duck junior Mike Sica had a strong showing with a career-best 12th-place finish. Sica’s 1-under 212 included two rounds of 71 and one 70.
“Mike Sica really played some solid golf for us,” Nosler said.
Junior Jimmy White, making his fall debut, finished in a tie for 43rd at 221. Senior co-captain Chris Carnahan, coming off a ninth place finish at the Club Grove Intercollegiate, finished in a tie for 62nd. Redshirt freshman Justin St. Clair also tied for 62nd at 225.
The Ducks fall finale is Nov. 4-5 at the Prestige at Palm Desert in Palm Desert, Calif.
Jon Roetman is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.