It’s now all about the postseason for the Oregon women’s golf team.
With an NCAA regional bid already secured, Pacific-10 Conference pride is on the line this week as the Ducks travel to the par-72, 6,405-yard Saticoy Country Club in Somis, Calif., the site of this year’s conference championships.
The Ducks will be hoping to improve on one of the best seasons in recent memory. Oregon captured multiple team titles for the first time since 1996, with wins at the Lady Vandal Invitational in the fall and a win at the Colby Invitational in March. Seven of the Ducks’ eight tournaments resulted in top-10 finishes, which includes two top-five finishes at the Duck Invitational and the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational in Sammamish, Wash.
A formidable test awaits as six of the Pac-10 teams are ranked in the top 25 of this week’s Golfweek rankings, including second-ranked UCLA, fourth-ranked and defending conference champ California and No. 9 Southern California. Arizona, ranked 11th nationally, joins No. 13 Washington and No. 23 Stanford in making the Pac-10 one of the nation’s toughest conferences.
“This tournament is the best competition we will see all year until the regionals,” Oregon head coach Shannon Rouillard said. “And even though we’re not putting any pressure on trying to finish in a certain spot, you do always want to play well at your conference tournament. It’s a feeling of pride and respect when you’re out there competing against the rest of the conference.”
While there may not be pressure to finish in a certain spot, it could be said that some pressure has been added from the Ducks’ finish to the season. The Ducks have struggled lately, losing some of the momentum they carried since the beginning of the fall season. Oregon finished with its worst result of the year, a 13th place showing at the PING/ASU Invitational at the beginning of April and then followed it up with a ninth-place at the Peg Barnard Intercollegiate Classic last week.
“We really have no expectations,” Rouillard said. “We just want to go play the game like we’re capable of playing it and refocus as we prepare for regionals.”
Unlike recent seasons, five of the six golfers Oregon will send to Somis have championship experience. Freshman Kimberly McCready will be the only golfer making her Pac-10 championship debut. Accompanying McCready will be sophomores Therese Wenslow, Erin Andrews, and Michelle Timpani.
Andrews leads the Ducks with a 76 stroke average for the spring, with Wenslow following close behind with a 76.4 average. Timpani is playing the best golf of the season with three top-25 finishes — including her first career individual title — in four events. Rounding out the Oregon contingent are juniors Johnna Nealy, who has had the most Pac-10 success of anyone on the team, and Jess Carlyon, who will be competing as an individual this week.
The Ducks will be looking to finish in the upper-half of the conference tournament for the first time since their fifth-place finish in 1997. Oregon finished last year’s tournament in last place.
The teams tee off today at 8:30 a.m., and will play 18 holes each day of the three-day event.