After hosting its home tournament earlier this week, No. 24 Oregon men’s golf headed down to TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, CA for The Goodwin. 

The loaded, 31-team field includes five top-25 and eight other teams from the Pac-12: No. 20 California, Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah and Washington State. 

Oregon sits middle of the pack, tied for 15th with Oregon State, 11 strokes off the top of the leaderboard. 

The Ducks are only one stroke behind Santa Clara and San Francisco, who are tied for 13th. 

No Duck scored below-par in the first round, which also meant that no Duck finished the round in the top-25 of the leaderboard. 

Oregon’s lowest score came from Gregory Solhaug, who shot three bogeys and two birdies en route to a one-over (71) score. 

Solhaug was one-under at one point, but couldn’t avoid mistakes, which prevented him from entering the top-25. He placed tied for 28th, one stroke from the top-25 and five strokes from the lead. 

In an uncharacteristic round for Nate Stember, the fifth-year didn’t shoot a single birdie and shot three bogeys. 

Those bogeys were spread out throughout the round, as Stember lacked the edge and failed to make a climb for the top of the leaderboard. 

Stember will need a stellar last two rounds in order to enter the top-25, as he is currently tied for 68th out of the 168 participants. 

Owen Avrit started his lackluster round with three bogeys on his first five holes, which he was able to negate due to three straight birdies on holes nine, 10 and 11. 

Avrit would finish his round as it began, but with three bogeys in his final six holes to bring his total back down to a three-over (73). He is tied with Stember at 68th, but his three birdies were the most of the team on the opening day in San Francisco. 

Aiden Krafft started his tournament with an even, two birdie two bogey, front nine, but he would not go under par in the back nine. Krafft shot one bogey and one double-bogey in the latter half of the round. 

Krafft shot the Ducks’ third three-over (73) of the round, which made him the third Oregon golfer to tie for 68th place in the first round. 

Greyson Leach did not have a successful first outing in San Francisco. 

Leach was the second Duck to not have shot a birdie. Adding onto that, Leach also shot three bogeys and one double-bogey en route to a five-over (75) round, which ranks him tied for 115th.

Oregon’s individual Hugh Adams had a day to forget, which included two double-bogeys in a four hole stretch.

Adams also shot two birdies, but the doubles still had a major impact on his day. Coupled with two more bogeys in the round, Adams finished with a four-over (74) and is tied for 92nd overall. 

Although no Oregon golfer shot below par in the round, it was still a successful first day of the tournament. 

The Ducks were able to make it up to 15th place, which is better than they collectively played. It will be hard to hold onto this kind of spot if the Ducks were to keep playing at the level they did on Thursday. 

Oregon needed to find an extra gear in order to put itself in position for birdies and to go on and convert on those opportunities. If the Ducks figure that out over the course of this week, they will be successful in San Francisco. 

Scorecard: Total (Par):

Solhaug: 71 (+1), T-28th

Stember: 73 (+3), T-68th

Avrit: 73 (+3), T-68th

Krafft: 73 (+3), T-68th

Adams (i): 74 (+4), T-92nd

Leach: 75 (+5), T-115th

Oregon: 290 (+10), T-15th out of 31