At the close of the opening round of the Chevron Silverado Showdown at the Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, California, it was clear that No. 16 Oregon women’s golf had a lot more to prove. 

The Ducks placed 12th in round one, but the four-way tie just two strokes ahead of them proved that there was potential for the standings to move. 

And that is exactly what happened in round two.

Oregon rocketed five spots up the rankings on Tuesday to a tie for seventh with TCU. The Ducks’ team score of 591 (+15) is 18 strokes behind leaders No. 9 USC who lead the 16-team competition with a 573 (-3). 

Oregon’s top performer of the opening round, Ching-Tzu Chen, took a slight step-back in her play on Tuesday.

Chen had a wild front nine where she shot four birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey, and ended with an even (36). Her back nine was far less eventful and only included just two bogeys. 

Chen’s latter half of the day brought her score up to a two-over (74), which kept her stagnant and tied for eleventh out of the 88 golfers for the second straight day. Chen is currently one stroke away from being tied for fifth, so she will fight for a spot in the top 10 in tomorrow’s final round. 

Oregon’s star Kiara Romero – the nation’s No. 3 ranked golfer – improved two strokes from her three-over (75) and dropped her score to an even (72). 

Romero shot three bogeys and three birdies on the day, but she was two-over going into the final four holes of the round. 

Romero went birdie, par, birdie, par to close out the day, which helped her shoot up 22 spots in the leaderboard and into the top 25 for a tie at 25. 

That still wasn’t the biggest Oregon jump of the second round. Ting-Hsuan Huang climbed 36 spots after her one-under (71), which was the best Oregon score on Tuesday.

Huang played an electric, two-under (34) front nine, which included three birdies and one bogey – all of which happening in a five hole stretch. 

On the back nine, Huang faltered slightly. She shot two bogeys and just one birdie for a one-over (37) back half, which totaled her one-under score. 

Huang found herself in the top half of the competition after the second round – tied for 43rd with teammate Minori Nagano. 

Nagano, however, dropped 18 places on Tuesday, so her second round was not nearly as positive. 

Nagano did not shoot a single birdie in the round and added five birdies. She shot a five-over (77), but it wasn’t the team’s worst score of the day. 

That came from Anika Varma, who repeated her wild first day with another six-over (78). She posted four bogeys, two birdies and two double-bogeys in a fiasco of a round. 

Varma’s second straight 78 placed her near the bottom of the leaderboard at 77th. 

Karen Tsuru, Oregon’s best non-lineup golfer in this tournament, who continues her run of positive golf in her first competition of the season. Tsuru started her day struggling, as she bogeyed on three of her first four holes. 

Tsuru locked in for the last 14 holes, on which she scored par-or-better on each. Coupled with two birdies in that stretch, she finished the day repeating her one-over (73) score from Monday. 

Tsuru moved up four spots in the second round, which placed her tied for 21st going into the final round. 

Sonja Tang’s second day in Napa was one to forget. She shot a six-over (78), which included seven bogeys and a birdie – five of those bogeys came consecutively on the back nine. 

Tang is tied for 74th going into the final round. 

Baylee Hammericksen shot eight bogeys on Tuesday, which repeated her eight-over (80) from round one. She placed tied for 81st, seven spots and 14 strokes away from the bottom of the standings. 

The Ducks played far better than they did on Monday, which is exactly what they needed to do to move up in a crowded top 10. 

Oregon also finished round two as the third best out of the eight participating Pac-12 schools. With the improvement from day one to day two, the foundation has been laid for the Ducks to make another big leap on the final day of the Silverado Showdown. 

Scorecard: Round two score (Par), Total score (Par), Place in Rankings 

Chen: 74 (+2), 145 (+1), T-11th

Tsuru (i): 73 (+1), 146 (+2), T-21st

Romero: 72 (E), 147 (+3), T-25th

Huang: 71 (-1), 150 (+6), T-43rd 

Nagano: 77 (+5), 150 (+6), T-43rd

Tang (i): 78 (+6), 155 (+11), T-74th

Varma: 78 (+6), 156 (+12), 77th

Hammericksen (i): 80 (+8), 160 (+16), T-81st

Oregon: 294 (+6), 591 (+15), T-7th