The 59th annual Western Intercollegiate brought new meaning to the phrase “pray for rain” for Oregon, as the Ducks took home their first team title since 2002, thanks to a third-round cancellation due
to precipitation.
Oregon topped the leaderboard after two rounds at the par-70, 6,445-yard Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif., and with no final round to play, the Ducks were awarded first place.
Should a third round have been played, Oregon head coach Steve Nosler felt confident that his squad could have protected its two-stroke lead over Kansas and won the tournament despite the rain.
“We would have liked to have played and won it today, and I think we would have,” Nosler said. “But you certainly can’t be unhappy when you win a tournament, no matter what the circumstances. Plus, we’ve played pretty decent golf two weeks in a row now.”
There have been nothing but blue skies for Oregon as of late. The win yesterday was its second top-five finish in as many tournaments and further legitimized its worthiness for earning an NCAA Regional seeding.
“We really needed a strong finish
at Pasatiempo,” Nosler said. “And winning
it, beating several teams from our
region, is a tremendous lift for our NCAA
Regional chances.”
Other teams from the Pacific Region competing at the tournament included Stanford, who finished fourth at 589, fifth-place finisher UC Irvine (590), sixth-place Cal Poly (591), seventh-place San Jose State (592), ninth-place Long Beach State (597) and California and UC Riverside, which tied for 10th at 598.
Coming off last week’s fifth-place finish at the Oregon Duck Invitational, Tuesday’s win marked the second Western Intercollegiate title the Ducks have claimed in school history. The previous win was in 2001.
The official results for the two-round tournament left Kansas in second place with a team score of 584 followed by UCLA at 586. Oregon’s final score of 582 came by way of the Ducks shooting a 293 and 289 in the first and second rounds, respectively.
The individual title went to J.J. Scurich of Cal Poly. Scurich’s 2-under 138 finish edged Daniel Im of UCLA by two strokes.
One of the Ducks’ more potent golfers has been Matt Ma, whose recent success shows no signs of slowing down. The sophomore from Aiea, Hawaii, shot rounds of 71 and 70, placing him in a tie for third place with a 1-over 141. Ma has finished in the top-six in five tournaments this season. He was joined by three other teammates in the top 20.
Junior Gregg LaVoie continued his strong streak with a 145, good for 12th place. It was LaVoie’s best finish since tying for 10th at the 2003 Northwest Collegiate Classic. Fellow junior Justin St. Claire shot a pair of 73s en route to tying for 16th with a 6-over 146. Chris Dukeminier joined in on Oregon’s successful outing — the Eugene native recorded his best finish as a collegian by tying for 34th with a 150.
Yesterday’s win is a testament to Oregon’s significant improvement this season. Earlier in March, the Ducks finished last in the field of 15 at the Ashford Collegiate. Oregon heads to the desert next to compete in the ASU Thunderbird Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., April 8-9.