The 27th-ranked Oregon women’s golf team played earlier this week against the country’s best in Henderson, Nev., and gave a strong performance. The women finished tied for eighth with Missouri.
“The field is a very good one,” Oregon head coach Shannon Rouillard said about their field. “We’ll see some different teams, since there’s fewer from the Pac-10, but the quality should be equal to the Ihlanfeldt tournament. The course is a desert one, on the side of a mountain. The wind can blow, so hopefully we’ll have some decent weather, and the ball will roll. We’ll have to continue to focus on target golf and keep the golf physical.”
The tournament comprised three top 10 teams: No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 Pepperdine, No. 6 Arkansas, and seven others, including Oregon, in the top 50. These included No. 11 UNLV, No. 23 Arizona, No. 28 Kent State, No. 30 Missouri, No. 31 Notre Dame, No. 33 BYU and No. 45 TCU. The rest of the teams were SMU, UC Irvine, Colorado State, Eastern Washington and Oklahoma to make up the 16-team field.
In the overall standings, redshirt junior Therese Wenslow led the Ducks after two rounds after she shot a 3-over 75. She continued her strong tournament by sinking three birdies including two on the back nine. Wenslow, who is regarded as Oregon’s top threat whenever she steps on the course, ended the tournament tied for 21st. After sitting out 2004-05 with an injury, Wenslow showed her resolve with a great performance this week.
Wenslow was the only Duck to break par on the par 72, 6,207-yard course with her first-round 71 Monday, and followed with a 75 second-round Tuesday.
Senior Erin Andrews took her 5-over on Halloween, and finished one over on the next two rounds. Andrews equaled Wenslow’s score for the day, and held even for the last round. Andrews also owned the Ducks’ best score on Tuesday (73), after she shot an opening-round 77 Monday. She too knocked in three birdies – two on the back nine. She finished tied for 31st.
Individually, the Ducks had three other golfers in the top 65 in freshman Cathryn Bristow, junior Kim McCready and sophomore Victoria Wenslow, Therese’s sister. They struggled throughout the tournament and finished tied for 44th, 55th and 63rd respectively.
Rouillard wants more consistency.
“We’ve been a little up and down, but when we’ve rebounded, we’ve played well,” Rouillard said. “We had a little bad luck at Sahalee when Victoria got sick and we could only play four, but other than that, I think we’ve had a good fall so far.”
Pac-10 rival No. 2 UCLA broke the course single day team record again on Wednesday with a 12-under 276 – three strokes better than Monday’s record. The Bruins finished with a 24-under 840, 29 shots better than the previous tournament record. The scores from the top three individuals ranked top-three overall.
Three of the top teams provided the Pac-10 with depth. UCLA, Arizona and Oregon rounded out a strong showing for the conference.
The Las Vegas Founders Women’s Collegiate Showcase was the last tournament for the Ducks until the University of Arizona’s Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Feb. 20-21, 2006 at Copper River Country Club. The time off provides an opportunity for the women to put in some extra time on the greens and practice consistency for coach Rouillard.