The Oregon men’s golf team continued to struggle Thursday at the TaylorMade/Waikoloa Intercollegiate, held at the par-72, 7,074-yard Waikoloa Kings’ Course in Waikoloa, Hawaii. Despite bettering their first round score by four strokes, the Ducks slipped three spots into 16th place after a second-round team score of 289, which gives them a two-day total of 583.
In spite of falling into 16th, the Ducks stand poised to make a move into the top ten if they can put together a solid third-round on Friday. Oregon trails the trio of schools tied for ninth place by only four strokes, and if the Ducks play a spectacular round, they could possibly jump into the top five. Arizona State and Arkansas, currently tied for fifth, lead the Ducks by only twelve.
Recovering from hometown jitters, freshman and Hawaiian native Matt Ma posted the biggest turnaround of the day for the Ducks. Ma turned around a tough first-round 77 into a team-leading 1-under 71 second-round, which moved him up into a tie for 64th. Sophomore Kyle Johnson, the highest Duck individual, shot an even par-72 in the second round, bettering his first-round total by one. Johnson is tied for 40th overall, with a 1-over total of 145. The Ducks top man of the first day, Gregg LaVoie, slipped to a tie for 48th after a second-round 74, leaving him with an overall total of 146. After finishing in the top 20 for the first time in his career, Hawaii has proven to be unkind for freshman Dustin Pewarchuk. Pewarchuk shot a second-round 73, putting him into a tie for 69th with a two-day total of 149.
The tournament leader, fifth-ranked Georgia Tech, cooled off from their blistering 16-under total posted in the first round. The Yellow Jackets shot a second-round 291, 19 strokes higher than their 272 yesterday. Both fourth-ranked UCLA and UC Davis now sit only two strokes back, after they shot second-day totals of 283 and 281, respectively. Washington carded their second-straight 283 for a two-day 566 and fell a spot into fourth. Arkansas and No. 8 Arizona State are tied for fifth at 571. Southern California is in seventh with a 574, followed by Stanford with a 578. The trio of teams tied for ninth at 579 include TCU, Nagoya Commerce (Japan) and Pepperdine.
The first-round individual leader, Georgia Tech’s Nicholas Thompson, surrendered his first-round lead by shooting a poor second-round score of 77, 13 strokes worse than his first-day performance. Thompson fell into 13th place with a 3-under 141. Sitting atop the leader board is UC Davis’s Scott Gordon, who posted a second-round 6-under 66, finishing with a overall score of 136. Gordon sits two shots clear of the field.
The final round tees off Friday at 6:45 a.m.