Expectations have changed for the Oregon men’s golf team since the beginning of the fall season.
The Ducks emerged as the only undefeated team in the country after four tournament wins, set an NCAA record for the lowest team score in a single round and garnered the No. 1 ranking from the Golf Coaches Association of America Coaches Poll.
“After you look back, you kind of want to shoot for the stars,” head coach Casey Martin said. “I just told the guys, just get in contention. Get in there down the wire and be willing to fail down the stretch. As long as we’re willing to put ourselves mentally in a position to have a shot, that’s all I care about right now.”
Oregon will have a chance to preview a high-pressure situation when it competes in the Amer Ari Invitational on the Kings’ Course in Waikoloa, Hawaii from Feb. 5-7.
The 18-team event will have 13 of the top-50 teams, four of the top-10 teams and four top-20 individual golfers according to Golfweek’s individual and team rankings.
Martin called the tournament one of the majors for amateur golf in 2015.
So the Ducks will be thrust right into one of the biggest events of the calendar year.
“We haven’t been cooped up at all,” Martin said. “We’ve had incredible weather over here, we don’t have any excuses. It’s a bit out of the blue after two months being down, being thrown into a big event, but it gets the guys jacked up. They’re stoked to go play.”
After a competitive week of qualifying play, Brandon McIver, Thomas Lim, Aaron Wise, Zach Foushee and Jonathan Woo each earned spots in the team’s lineup. Wise was the overall winner for the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic in Maui.
Freshman Hurly Long and redshirt junior Noah Sheikh didn’t make the team cut, but will compete as individuals at the tournament.
Sheikh, who has suffered multiple injuries throughout his career, will be participating in his first major event outside the Pacific Northwest.
“I’ve just been waiting to get into a rhythm, kind of waiting to wake up from the bad spell,” Sheikh said. “Once I strung one good round together, the second happened, the third happened, the fourth happened. I just kind of got into a rhythm and restored some of my self-confidence.”
Long, on the other hand, has already been a major part of Oregon’s success this season.
After traveling back home to Germany over break, Long had to shake off a bit of rust and struggled early in the qualifying rounds. After showing consistent improvement throughout this past week; however, Long isn’t concerned about the level of competition heading into the tournament.
“It does not change my approach, it changes the excitement for it,” Long said. “It’s definitely the biggest event we’ve played so far and there’s a lot of guys there that are really the top ranked college golfers.”
With such a broad spectrum of top-notch teams both inside and outside the Pac-12, competing in the Amer Ari Invitational, Oregon’s performance should serve as a barometer for the rest of the season.
Follow Josh Schlichter on Twitter @joshschlichter
