The Oregon women’s golf team finished tied for fifth at this weekend’s Pac-12 Championships held at the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, CA. Oregon has now placed in the top five in its last eight tournaments, and 12 of the last 13 overall.
Briana Chacon led the way during round one shooting an even-par 71. A birdie on No. 9 and No. 18 helped the sophomore place tied for eighth after day one. The best was still yet to come for Chacon however.
Hsin-Yun (Cynthia) Lu shot a 1-over 72, and Ching-Tzu Chen added a 3-over 74 to tie Oregon for seventh after the first day. They found themselves just eight shots back of second-place Stanford (+5).
Chacon mirrored her round one performance with another even-par 71 on Saturday. Despite a double-bogey early in the round, Chaco rebounded nicely as she found herself tied for seventh, and just six shots behind first.
Both Lu and Chen improved on impressive day ones by shooting 3-over 74 each, moving them to tied for 12th and 18th, respectively.
Perhaps the most underrated performance of the weekend for the Ducks came from Sofie Kibsgaard Nielson in round two. Nielsen shot a 5-over 76, which was a seven-stroke improvement from her day one performance.
Heading into the final day of the tournament, Oregon was breathing down the neck of the top five with a 24-over 592.
Thankfully for the Ducks, they saved their best performances for the last round. Chacon’s 3-under 68 tied her for fifth individually in the tournament. This marks her fifth consecutive top-10 finish.
Chen led Oregon with six birdies on the day, improving her to 13th place. Lu added a 6-over 77, as the top-ranked player from Asia in the 2020 recruiting class finished the weekend tied for 23rd. Nielsen added an even-par 71 of her own, improving on an already impressive second round.
Oregon shot 1-under 283 in the round, moving them up to fifth place on the weekend. USC ended up winning the tournament with all five of their golfers placing in the top-20.
Oregon will now look ahead to the NCAA Regionals, which are slated to kick off Monday, May 12, with the location still being unknown.
