After a relatively weak start going into the second half of the year, both Oregon men’s and women’s golf have been on a tear in their last few tournaments, with their latest success coming from podium finishes this past week with strong performances from Ramil Saelim on the men’ s side and Sophie Han on the women’s.

The men’s team kicked things off in Bandon, Oregon, at the Bandon Dunes Championship on Sunday, where they finished second behind Oregon State. Leading the pack for the Ducks was Saelim,who finished tied for fifth with freshman Oscar Lent, who played as an individual, with a final score of 208 (-4).

The Ducks opened the tournament strong with Saelim shooting four under par (67) in the first round, with Aiden Krafft and Jeffery Kwak, who finished tied for 13th, both shooting five under (66).

Things fell off for Krafft and Kwak in the second round, shooting par and one over par, respectively. Saelim continued to play well, shooting two under in the second round and one over in the final round. 

The third round held Oregon from pushing back with OSU, with Saelim, Krawk and Krafft shooting one, two and three over par, respectively. Sebastian Desiosa, who finished tied for 20th with a score of 213 (E), played his best round of the tournament on the final day, shooting four under par (67).

Rounding out the bottom of the Ducks leaderboard were Casper Nerpin and Kyreece Romero (individual), who finished tied for 30th, shooting two over. Tim Chang and Teddy Vigna also played as individuals but finished 55th (+8) and 63rd (+10) respectively.

The women’s team placed third at the GameAbove Golf Invitational at the Rolling Hills Country Club in Rolling Hills California on Monday, but finished 21 strokes behind second place No. 4 Texas A&M. Kiara Romero led the team by the end of the tournament with a final score of 142 (-2), but due to her absence from round one from an illness, her score did not count towards the grand total for the team.

“I’m proud of the fight we showed this week,” women’s head coach Derek Radley said. “Our team really battled through some adversity, and I thought all five of our players had some really good moments out there. This was another good field and another opportunity to play against the caliber of opponents we’ll see in the postseason. I’m excited about where this group is at right now and am looking forward to seeing how we can continue to improve.”

Han would be the Ducks’ leader through the end of the tournament, finishing tied for 17th with a final score of 219 (+3). Han and Darae Chung, who finished 20th (+5), opened the tournament shooting three under par. 

On the other hand, Tong An and Shyla Singh struggled in the first round, shooting two and four over par, respectively. The Ducks had their worst performances in the second round with Singh and An shooting three over par and Chung shooting four over. Han opened the second round with back-to-back bogeys before bouncing back with a birdie on the third hole, but would return to poor form, finishing the round six over par.

Romero played well through the second and third rounds after returning from her illness, shooting par and two under par. On the back nine of her final round, she birdied three times before a bogey on the 18th hole spoiled the round.

Han and Singh finished even in the final round on par. Han birdied five times, four of which came on the back nine. An and Chung wouldn’t get so lucky, finishing three and four over par, dropping Chung from 8th to 20th place.

While this performance wasn’t exactly the cleanest finish of the season, a top-three finish is solid considering it came on the back of players like Han and Singh, who haven’t had the best season so far overall. The result did drop them in the national rankings, from No. 3 to No. 6.

The men’s team will be home for their next tournament as they host the Duck Invitational at the Eugene Country Club on March 23. The women’s team is on the road as they head to Fort Worth, Texas, to compete in the Charles Schwab Women’s Collegiate Invitational at Colonial Country Club on March 23.