The No. 18 Oregon men’s golf team was treating the U.S. Intercollegiate in Palo Alto, Calif., this weekend as a warm-up for the West Regionals next week.
Well, they’re almost warm, and senior Ryan Lavoie is positively hot.
The Ducks got a good performance from Lavoie, who finished ninth overall, but the rest of the team was unable to come back from a poor first round and Oregon ended up fourth. Despite being the highest-seeded team going into the U.S. Intercollegiate, Oregon shot an opening round 300, then two rounds of 289 to drop from seventh to fourth on Sunday.
Senior co-captain Lavoie, ranked 38th in the nation, continued to shine for the Ducks, shooting two even-par rounds, then a four-over 75 in the final round. Lavoie continued his statistical leadership of the team, which he has lead in scoring at seven of 12 tournaments this year.
The Pasco, Wash., native achieved an Oregon milestone Friday when he became just the third Duck in 21 years to earn first team all Pacific-10 Conference honors. Lavoie was the only non-Arizona school golfer to be named to the five-man team, joining Arizona State’s Paul Casey, Matt Jones and Jeff Quinney, as well as Arizona’s Ricky Barnes and Derek Gillespie for the honors.
Oregon freshman Chris Carnahan, who held the Ducks’ second best stroke average at 74 before the U.S. Intercollegiate, received an honorable mention for all Pac-10 honors. Carnahan finished 46th at last weekend’s tournament.
Other finishers for Oregon at the Stanford tournament were senior co-captain Andrew Tredway, who finished in 24th; junior T.J. Duncan, who finished 50th; and sophomore Aaron Byers, who finished 79th. Duncan had the team’s best round of the weekend, a five-under par 66 in the final round.
No. 37 California won the U.S. Intercollegiate by one stroke over No. 46 Pepperdine. The Golden Bears won the Stanford-hosted tournament behind the play of 74th-ranked Han Lee, who won the individual title by two strokes. Unranked Portland University finished third, six strokes ahead of Oregon. Only five top-50 teams played in the 18-team field in Palo Alto, and the Ducks only managed to beat two of those.
The Ducks’ next tournament will be the NCAA West Regionals in Fresno, Calif., May 18-20. The teams for regionals, as well as the cut for the NCAA Championships, will be announced this week.