The Oregon women’s golf team has had its recent tournaments canceled by rain, disrupted by rain and shortened by rain.
Now the Ducks have suffered their first baseball-style rain delay, and the results were, once again, as ugly as yesterday’s gray skies.
After the first round of the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational in Redmond, Wash., the Ducks stand eighth of 17 teams. The tournament was delayed for almost three hours because of the rain.
Oregon’s fight with mother nature has now stretched on for four tournaments. At the NCAA Championships in Sunriver last May, the Ducks dropped from third to 11th on the final wind-swept day. This season, the Ducks opened at the NCAA Preview in Florida and encountered Hurricane Gordon, which cut the tournament short and left Oregon with a 19th-place finish. The Mary Fossum Invitational two weeks ago in East Lansing, Mich., was also shortened, and the Ducks ended up ninth out of 15 teams.
Senior Claire Hunter and freshman Katharina Schallenberg lead Oregon. Both golfers are tied for 15th place.
The Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational is being played at the Sahalee Country Club, the beautiful course that hosted the PGA Championships in 1998.
Meanwhile, the Oregon men’s golf team is not fighting the storm clouds, but is fighting a tough field at the Pepperdine Intercollegiate.
The Ducks find themselves in eighth place after two 18-hole rounds at the Saticoy Country Club in Oxnard, California. Oregon had been in fourth after one round, but a second-round score of 302 dropped them down. If the Ducks don’t crack the top-five today, it will be the first time in the young season that they failed to do so.
But Oregon continues to get strong individual performances from different team members. After sophomore Chris Carnahan’s win at the Northwest Classic and newcomer John Ellis’ individual crown at the Husky Invitational, junior Aaron Byers could become the Ducks’ third straight individual winner at the Pepperdine Intercollegiate. Byers is in sixth place, five strokes behind leader John Mallinger of Long Beach State.
The men will conclude their play today with one 18-hole round, while the women will play two rounds over the next two days in Washington.