The No. 31 Oregon men’s golf team looks set to begin the 2009 NCAA Championships at the Inverness Golf Club in Toledo, Ohio, this morning. The Ducks received the No. 18 seed for the tournament, and will feature four freshmen, as they have for the majority of the spring season.
Freshmen Daniel Miernicki, Andrew Vijarro, Eugene Wong, Robbie Ziegler and sophomore Isaiah Telles will be the five players who will look to improve upon last year’s 27th-place finish.
“They know this is a big deal,” third-year head coach Casey Martin said. “But they’re going to be ready for it.
“Our goal is to get in that elite eight,” Martin continued. “It’s going to take a great effort, but the way we’ve been playing I have no doubt that we can do it.”
While Telles is the only one of the five who has played in the national tournament before, the four freshmen appear to have all the right tools to step up to the learning curve in a timely fashion.
“This is all brand new to the four of us, and Isaiah only has one year under his belt,” Miernicki said. “So honestly, I don’t know what to expect. We are all just focusing on playing our best golf and letting the results take care of themselves.”
Miernicki has been exceptionally solid for the Ducks as of late, and will have to continue to lead this young Oregon squad if they hope to make it into the final eight.
Oregon, who will be paired with Texas Tech and Central Florida for the first two rounds, will be playing under a different tournament format this year. Teams will play three 18-hole rounds beginning today and concluding on Thursday, with the top eight teams advancing to match play on Friday and Saturday. The individual champion will be crowned Thursday following the first 54 holes, while in match play, quarterfinals will begin Friday morning with the semifinals coming later that afternoon. The championship match will be held on Saturday.
Before last week’s regional tournament, sophomore Jack Dukeminier beat out Vijarro in a qualifier during practice to get the nod for regionals. But this week Martin decided to go with Vijarro.
“Yeah, it’s been a battle. Most of the spring I haven’t had to qualify until just recently,” Vijarro said. “Duke is a great player and he is fun to compete against. I have a lot of respect for him.”
That being said, Vijarro was undoubtedly excited about his coach’s selection.
“I have had a very good spring with some solid finishes, and I feel that I can have another good finish this coming week,” Vijarro said.
The Pacific-10 Conference will be well-represented this week, as six other schools (Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford, USC and Washington) will make the long trip, including defending NCAA Champion UCLA, among the 30-team field.
The course will be unfamiliar to the Oregon squad, but Martin played there seven years ago and provided some insight as to what his players should expect this week.
“It’s an absolutely phenomenal place,” Martin said. “It’s an old-school course that is extremely difficult and should be a great test of golf.”
The Ducks will tee off at 9:12 a.m. and may have to battle some weather elements – the forecast calls for some rain and possible thunderstorms.
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