In arguably its most important tournament of the year, the Oregon men’s golf team is receiving consistent play from its veterans and rookies alike, putting the team in prime position for a big finish in the concluding weeks of its 2002-03 season.
Oregon currently sits in sixth place at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, hosted by No. 11 UCLA at the par-72, 6,736-yard Oakmont Country Club course in Glendale, Calif. The Ducks shot a two-round team total 34-over-par 754 in the tournament’s opening two rounds.
As has been the pattern much of the season, senior John Ellis led the Ducks on Monday, opening the first round with a 3-over-par 75, then proceeding to shoot an even-par 72. His score was good enough to tie Ellis with USC’s Ben Hayes and Chris Nallen of Arizona at No. 12 overall.
The Ducks also received strong performances from senior Chris Carnahan and freshman Gregg LaVoie, who both shot 6-over for the day, tying each other at 25th overall. LaVoie rebounded from a less-than-stellar opening round, in which he shot a 6-over 78 but followed up in the second round with an even-par round to finish tied with Carnahan.
Redshirt freshman Kyle Johnson sits tied for 33rd overall with Arizona’s Andrew Medley, who both shot 9-over rounds. Rounding out the scoring for the Ducks was junior Mike Sica, who sits on the heels of Duck teammate Johnson at 10-over-par, good enough to be tied for 36th with Washington State’s Dustin White.
Junior Jimmy White, competing as an individual, shot a 16-over-par round, which landed him 52nd overall.
Host and No. 11 UCLA, playing on its very own golf course, currently holds a firm lead over the field after shooting a 6-over 726, seven strokes ahead of Stanford. No. 20 Washington is third with a 17-over 737, followed by No. 6 Arizona and No. 16 Arizona State to round out the top five. If Oregon hopes to crack the top five, which the team did in last year’s event, it would have to out-shoot its nearest competitor No. 16 Arizona State by 11 strokes just to tie. However, in-state Oregon rival Oregon State isn’t far behind the Ducks, as the Beavers shot a 36-over-par 756 to finish only two strokes behind the Ducks.
Oregon State’s Cameraon MacKenzie is currently the field leader after his 4-under-par edged out second place leader Jim Seki of Stanford by one stroke. Alejandro Canizares of Arizona State, Brock Mackenzie of Washington and Roy Moon of UCLA are all currently tied for third overall at 1-under-par.
The third round of the Pac-10 Tournament is set for 8:15 a.m. today.