Oregon junior Derek Sipe was one of the big movers on the final day of the PING-Arizona Intercollegiate at the Arizona National Golf Course in Tucson, Ariz. Starting the final round in a tie for 19th place, Sipe shot five under par to finish out the 54-hole tournament, matching his performance in the first round of the event held the previous day. His overall score of seven under par earned Sipe a tie for fifth place out of a field of 89 individual entrants. Sipe finished seven strokes behind Arizona’s Brian Prouty, who led the tournament from start to finish.
As a team, the Ducks’ overall score of 10 over par was good enough to hang on to the 10th place position they owned at the end of day one. Oregon needed to fight off a strong challenge from a Pac-10 rival to stay in the top 10. California posted the second best team round in the field to shoot up to 11th place. The Golden Bears were bested on Tuesday only by the BYU Cougars, who used a seven under par final round to claim second place. UNLV claimed the team title with an overall score of 23 under par.
Sipe’s final round began much like the first two. Starting on the 10th hole, Sipe had to immediately deal with the section of the course that he and most of the Oregon team struggled with throughout the tournament. In his final round, Sipe started with a double bogey followed by a bogey on the 12th hole. Sipe’s combined score in the tournament for the 10th-12th holes was eight over. After that tough stretch, he quickly found his stride, recording a birdie on 14 before posting his second eagle of the tournament on the par-5 18th hole. The momentum carried into the back nine in the form of five birdies to finish the tournament as Oregon’s leader and in the top five individually.
Senior Matt Ma used two birdies in his final four holes to earn a par score for the last 18 holes which was Oregon’s second best score on Tuesday. Junior Joey Benedetti also struggled with the 11th and 12th holes (bogey, double bogey) but played well the rest of the round earn a score of +3 while senior Jay Snyder shot four over par to give the Ducks a team score of two over for the final round. Oregon’s three-round score of 862 was an improvement of 56 strokes over the team’s total of 918 in the 2006 edition of this event, where the Ducks finished in last place.
Oregon will travel south next week for the three-day Hawaii-Hilo Intercollegiate Feb. 7-9.