The Oregon women’s golf team recorded its highest finish at the Pacific-10 Championship in three years Wednesday.
Shooting a team score of 318, the Ducks finished in eighth place — the same position they had at the beginning of the day.
“We gave it a good shot, even though we felt we could have played better,” Oregon head coach Shannon Rouillard said. “The greens were very challenging and if you left your approach in the wrong spot, it could cost you at least a stroke.”
Despite the eighth-place finish, the championship caliber of the competition and the difficult par-72, 6,405-yard Saticoy Country Club course, the Ducks will return home from Somis, Calif., a stronger and more intelligent team.
“We maintained our position and that will help us,” Rouillard said. “We wanted to use this
tournament to prepare for the tough conditions and competition we could see at regionals, and as long as we don’t let our scores get us down, we should be in good shape.”
Individually for the Ducks, junior Johnna Nealy recorded the best round of the tournament for Oregon with her final round 2-over 74. Nealy carded sixteen pars and two bogeys to climb into a tie for 19th. She finished at 18-over par for the tournament and grabbed her second straight top 20 finish in the conference championships.
“Johnna had a terrific round today,” Rouillard said. “This was probably the best putting of her career. She made a lot of tough putts to save par.”
The surprise of the tournament was freshman Kimberly McCready, who, in her conference championship debut, recorded the highest finish for an Oregon freshman at the Pac-10s since 1997.
McCready carded a 78-75-82-235 to finish tied for 21st, even though she struggled with the putter the entire final round.
“Kim played two really good rounds of golf,” Rouillard said. “She struck the ball extremely well all three days and had just a little trouble with the putter today, but overall it was a good event for her.”
As a team, the Ducks finished 45 strokes behind tournament champion and No. 2 UCLA.
The Ducks now await a likely bid to the NCAA West Regional, which will be held May 6-8 at Stanford. NCAA bids will be announced Monday.