In a very competitive field, which included seven other top-15 teams, No. 12 Oregon women’s golf played well enough to place sixth after round one of the PING/ASU Invitational at Papago Golf Course in Phoenix, AZ.
The Ducks finished two-under, five strokes behind leaders, No. 13 Arizona State.
Oregon’s team effort was helped greatly by the performance from Minori Nagano, who excelled in her back nine to score a three-under (69) – the only sub-70 score from a Duck not named Kiara Romero this season.
Nagano had just one bogey and eight pars on her front nine, but as soon as she made the turn, she gained rhythm.
Nagano birdied four of her first five holes on the back nine and parred the rest of the way to finish three-under for the round. Her impressive outing was one stroke behind the four-way tie for the lead, and Nagano is tied for fifth.
Oregon received a second below-par performance from Ashleigh Park, whose one-under (71) ties her at 18th and is only three strokes off the top of the leaderboard.
Park shot one-over through her first 17 holes, with two bogeys and a birdie, but a miraculous eagle on the 18th hole brought her score down to one-under for the round.
Anika Varma showed out in her second start of the season, but her day could have closed out much better.
Varma’s three birdies and one bogey through 15 holes primed her for a top-25 finish for the day, as she scored two-under with three holes to play.
However, two bogeys on the last three holes dropped her score down to an even (72), which places her tied for 28th out of the field of 93.
After a complete par-or-better front nine with one birdie, it seemed as if Ching-Tzu Chen was going to make a run for the top of the leaderboard.
A bogey on 11 and a triple-bogey on 13 tanked her round down to three-over. After that, Chen shot two birdies and a bogey for a two-over (74) round, which tied her for 53rd.
Ting-Hsuan Huang shot the highest score amongst the Ducks due to her one birdie, five bogey outing.
Huang finished four-over (76), which tied her for 65th.
In a field with so many strong competitors, Oregon’s sixth place finish after round one is a definite positive.
Nagano, Park and even Varma have chances to challenge for top spots in this tournament – something that none of them have experienced this season.
The team is poised to make a statement run for the top of the standings in the next two rounds of play in Phoenix.
Scorecard: Total (Par), Place in leaderboard
Nagano: 69 (-3), T-5th
Park: 71(-1), T-18th
Varma 72 (E), T-28th
Chen: 74 (+2), T-53rd
Huang: 76 (+4), T-65th
Oregon: 286 (-2), 6th
