Oregon’s two golf teams are in two different cities this week, but they share the same goal — a Pacific-10 Conference championship.
The No. 24 women’s golf team tries to accomplish that goal at the Eugene Country Club Monday through Wednesday. The No. 28 men will go for the title in Tempe, Ariz., at the Karsten Golf Course on the same days. For both, the path to a championship won’t be easy.
This is where the Pac-10 gets tough, in championship time. Teams like Stanford, Southern California and UCLA have been lurking in the rankings all year and could easily shoot three days of below-par golf and win either tournament. But then again, so could the Ducks.
For women’s head coach Renee Baumgartner, in her last year before taking over duties as associate athletic director full time, this tournament marks the realization of a long-term goal.
“I’ve orchestrated this dream,” Baumgartner said. “I want [the team] to have fun and play well, and have everybody go out on a really positive note.”
There is no way to overlook the significance of home-course advantage for the women this week. The team practices at the Eugene Country Club twice a week, and even spends off-days putting on the course’s two perfect practice greens.
“The country club gives us a significant advantage” Baumgartner said. “We feel very comfortable on that golf course.”
The men’s team will not experience that kind of advantage in Tempe, but it will feel nearly as comfortable at Karsten as the women do in Eugene. The Ducks played in Tempe last weekend at the Arizona State/Thunderbird Invitational and finished third among Pac-10 teams.
“It’s a good golf course for us,” head coach Steve Nosler said. “We’re relatively long, and the golf course is relatively long.”
Nosler will rely once again on senior co-captains Ryan Lavoie and Andrew Tredway to be “long” and lead his team. Lavoie has been the Ducks’ leader on the golf course all season, with a fourth, third, second and first place this year.
Nosler also thinks the format of the Pac-10 championships will favor his Ducks. The team has played a format all year in which the team fields five players with the four lowest scores counting towards the team’s score. In Tempe, the men will field six players, with five scores counting, and Nosler thinks his team has the depth to compete with the Pac-10 powers.
The Pac-10s are not the end of the postseason for either team.
The West Regionals, in Tempe for the women, and in Fresno, Calif., for the men, determine whether or not the teams will go to the NCAA Championships. Both teams are assured of berths in the Regionals by virtue of the competition they have faced all year, but that one tournament will make or break both seasons.
The women play at the Eugene Country Club starting today, with the first Oregon tee time at 10:06. Admission is free.