The unexpected almost happened Wednesday at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships in Glendale, Calif. No, Oregon didn’t almost win, nor did they even finish in the top five for that matter. They didn’t even move up or down on the final day after finishing seventh overall after three rounds Tuesday.
Oregon did almost move on the leaderboard, but it wouldn’t have been a move the team was hoping for.
The Ducks, who entered the final round of the Pac-10 Tournament at the par-72, 6,736-yard Oakmont Country Club in seventh place, nearly squandered a 13-stroke lead to California, before the Ducks edged out the Golden Bears by one stroke.
Oregon finished the four-round tournament 64-over par with a combined score of 1504.
The Ducks were led by senior John Ellis, whose three rounds looked like a stock market graph, concluded the tournament 14th overall, climbing five spots in the final round. Ellis saved his best performance for last, shooting his tourney-best round, a 2-under 70, to ascend the leaderboard. Ellis opened the tournament in 12th place but had a poor third round, where the senior fell to 19th overall before the start of Wednesday’s final round.
Freshman Gregg LaVoie carded a 4-over 76 in the finale to conclude the tournament in a two-way tie for 21st overall. Junior Jimmy White finished the tournament tied for 30th overall with a 302, followed by senior Chris Carnahan, who finished tied for 32nd overall. Redshirt freshman Kyle Johnson finished in a tie for 46th overall after a final round 6-over par. Junior Mike Sica had his best round of the tournament Wednesday, scoring a 4-over and finishing 56th overall.
Host and No. 11 UCLA easily surpassed everyone in the field as it won the Pac-10 title by 27 strokes over nearest competitor No. 6 Arizona. No. 16 Arizona State finished third overall, followed by Stanford and No. 20 Washington.
Defending individual Pac-10 champion Jim Seki of Stanford was unable to repeat as UCLA’s John Merrick outshot Seki by 12 strokes in the final round. Merrick shot an impressive 12-under par to lay claim to his first Pac-10 title. Seki shared the second place title with Arizona State’s Brady Stockton.
Oregon has the next two weeks off as it awaits word from the NCAA West Regional announcements. The NCAA West Regional will be held at Washington National Golf Course in Auburn, Wash., May 15 through 17.
Scott Archer is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.