Second-round action Tuesday at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships in Walla Walla, Wash., found the Oregon men’s golf team idling in ninth place after posting a team score of 357.
Sixteenth-ranked UCLA currently tops the leaderboard with a team score of 707 and is holding off No. 17 Arizona State by just two strokes
going into the third round today.
Although the Ducks, now with a two-round score of 726, did not gain ground in the field, they did manage to shave 12 strokes off their first-round score thanks to Justin St. Clair’s clutch 72 on Tuesday that left him tied for 13th at 142. The junior from Springfield recorded six birdies Tuesday and three others in the first round on the 10th, 11th and
12th holes.
St. Clair’s teammates Gregg LaVoie and Jay Snyder are currently tied for 21st at 144. The Pac-10 Championships mark just the sixth competition Snyder has played in for Oregon, and he has had a decent outing thus far. His four birdies in the second round helped him finish 1-under par. LaVoie, who grew accustomed to playing golf in similar conditions in his nearby hometown of Pasco, Wash., gave the home crowd something to cheer about with an eagle on the par 5 seventh hole.
Matt Ma and Kyle Johnson both raised their games in the second round to help Oregon keep pace with Stanford and No. 24 Arizona, who are tied for sixth at 722. Washington (724) sits just two strokes ahead of the Ducks in eighth place. Ma and Johnson
improved their first round scores by four strokes in the second round.
The third round of the tournament tees off this morning, marking the beginning of the end of Oregon’s quest for a bid to the 2005 NCAA West Regional. Currently four strokes out of sixth place, the Ducks are in good shape to earn an invite.
If UCLA can hold on for a first place finish, it will become the first school in Pac-10 history ever to sweep conference titles in both men’s and women’s golf.
— Scott J. Adams