The Ducks are almost a lock to beat the Huskies this week.
On the golf course, anyway.
After one round at Washington’s Husky Invitational, the Ducks are in second place, eight strokes ahead of the fifth-placed hosts. In Monday’s action, Oregon was tied for first after 18 holes, but slipped ten strokes behind Pepperdine after the second round.
Oregon head coach Steve Nosler was surprisingly disappointed with his team’s second-place performance.
“We played pretty well in the morning,” Nosler said, “but we slipped a bit in the afternoon and let some teams get close to us. We did not play to the level we are capable of playing.”
Oregon sophomore John Ellis, a junior college transfer, is leading the Ducks in Washington with an even-par 144. He is one stroke behind tournament leader Randy Creighton of Pepperdine. Ellis finished 19th at the Ducks’ first tournament, the Northwest Classic in Corvallis two weeks ago.
Junior co-captain Brandon Harnden was the second-best Duck golfer, carding a 148 to finish tied for 13th. Senior Matt Genovese finished the day tied or 18th, and sophomore Chris Carnahan shared 33rd place with redshirt freshman Brad Mombert.
Carnahan held the Ducks’ second-best scoring average last year and won the individual crown at the Northwest Classic with a seven-under-par 203. But with a second-round 77, Carnahan took himself out of the running for a second straight individual title.
“Most of our mistakes were mental problems,” Nosler said. “We can eliminate those.”
If Oregon can hold on to its position today at the Trophy Lake Golf Course, it would be the team’s second top-five finish of its young season. The Ducks started off the year with a fifth-place showing at the Northwest Classic.
But Nosler doesn’t want to finish anything but first.
“If we play like we are capable of playing, we can move up and make a run on Pepperdine, or at least hang on to second place,” Nosler said. “But I never go to a tournament thinking about finishing second.”
The 54-hole tournament features seven Pacific-10 Conference teams in the 10-team field. Oregon has had success against Pac-10 foes the past two years. The Ducks currently lead all six other Pac-10 teams at the Husky Invitational, and placed better than three Pac-10 teams at the Northwest Classic.
Pepperdine turned a one-stroke deficit into a 10 stroke lead on Oregon, but the afternoon round’s biggest story was the drop-off of Tulsa. After a first-round team score of 364, the Golden Hurricane shot 28 strokes worse in the second round to drop to seventh.
Oregon had a 15 stroke differential between its two rounds, but managed to hold onto second. The Ducks lead UCLA by two strokes and Oregon State by six strokes.
The final 18-hole round of the Husky Invitational is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. today in Port Orchard.