Consistency.

In a four-round, three-day golf tournament the way to ensure success is to stay consistent. 

The No. 24 Oregon men’s golf team struggled with that throughout the regular season, but the Ducks showed out for the final Pac-12 Tournament at Desert Forest Golf Club in Carefree, Arizona. 

Oregon finished the competition tied with No. 10 Washington in fourth, just four strokes behind Stanford in third and five behind No. 21 California in second. 

No. 3 Arizona State took a resounding victory, finishing on top of the 12 team field by 16 strokes. 

The individual crown belonged to Stanford’s Karl Vilips, who won the competition by just one stroke. 

Oregon’s weekend was highlighted by two top-10 finishes from some unexpected golfers. 

Gregory Solhaug continued his incredible last couple months of golf with a fifth place finish in the 72-golfer field after a remarkably efficient weekend. 

Solhaug did not have a single round of the four where he shot below three birdies, the struggle for him was to limit the amount of mistakes he made. In the first and last rounds, he demonstrated his ability to zone in on positive play and reduce the amount of bogeys. 

His first round was his finest in Arizona — a five birdie, two bogey round which scored a three-under (68). Solhaug secured his best finish of the season in the most important tournament and seeks to carry that momentum into the Ducks’ next matchup in the NCAA tournament. 

The other top-10 finish came from a steady weekend from Oregon’s sixth and final addition to the lineup —  Eric Doyle.

Doyle had a different script than Solhaug. His success came from making sure he shot a sufficient amount of pars. He failed to shoot more than three birdies in any of the four rounds this weekend, but his 48 pars were fourth-most in the competition. 

Doyle also did not shoot below par in any of the rounds, which is why his 10th-place finish is confusing. The best way to summarize Doyle’s excellent golf this weekend would be that he minimized mistakes and forced his consistency to shine through. 

Doyle ensured his inclusion in any future postseason lineup this season due to his immaculate consistency, which is also a quality that he can help his teammates grasp. 

Greyson Leach was the only other Duck to place in the top 25, with all four rounds scoring under a four-over (75). While Leach hit that mark in three of the rounds, he remained much more consistent than the golfers around him. 

Leach found the ability to always match enough birdies to his bogeys in order to keep him afloat and in a top half position in the leaderboard. Even in a round such as his final one where he didn’t manage any birdies, Leach limited the amount of bogeys and ensured his successful weekend where he tied for 22nd. 

After the first two rounds, Aiden Krafft had played some of his best golf of the season and looked primed for a high finish in Arizona. Krafft sat in fifth after Friday’s two rounds and looked to lead the Ducks in the competition going forward. 

Over the final two rounds, Krafft shot 12 bogeys, four double-bogeys and six birdies. Each of those rounds resulted in a seven-over (78) and dropped him far down the leaderboard, all the way to a tie for 34th. 

Rounding out the bottom two finishers in the lineup are the Ducks’ two fifth-year seniors Nate Stember and Owen Avrit. 

Stember couldn’t find his game during the weekend, and shot his way into trouble very early with his opening seven-over (78). He bounced back slightly with a one-over (72) in the second round, but he would not reclaim that momentum again. 

Two more lackluster outings would follow on Saturday and Sunday, which tied him for 39th.

Avrit, who usually racks up birdies, failed to hit his quota this weekend. In fact, Avrit failed to tally a birdie until the third round. 

That would become the theme of the weekend, as Avrit never found his groove in the competition and became the lowest finisher in the lineup. 

Avrit’s performance can be summarized by being the only Duck to shoot a triple-bogey all weekend and finished tied for 52nd in his final conference tournament. 

The Ducks proved to be amongst the Pac-12’s best this weekend, which will prove valuable when the team enters a new, slightly weaker conference next season. 

Nonetheless, this is an outstanding positive to take into the NCAA Championship, where Oregon will likely be a four or five seed after its performance in Arizona. 

Scorecard: Total Score (Par), Place in Rankings

Solhaug: 287 (+3), 5th

Doyle: 291 (+7), 10th

Leach: 297 (+13), T-22nd

Krafft: 299 (+15), T-34th

Stember: 301 (+17), T-39th

Avrit: 305 (+21), T-52nd

Oregon: 1468 (+48), T-4th out of 12 Schools