After its worst finish yet in the 2002-03 season, the Oregon men’s golf team travels to Hawaii today for its second tournament of the spring season.
The Taylor Made/Waikoloa Intercollegiate in Waikoloa, will take place at two golf courses over three rounds. The par-72, 6,594 King’s Course and the par-70, 6,566 Beach Course will be featured. Oregon, which opened the spring portion of its season last week in Arizona, looks to rebound in the three-day tournament.
For the second-straight week, Oregon will face some of the top teams in the nation. Included in the 26-team field will be No. 3 Texas Christian, No. 12 UCLA, No. 18 Pepperdine, No. 20 Arkansas, No. 21 Georgia Tech, No. 23 Baylor and No. 25 Washington. Also of note are two-time defending Pacific-10 conference champion USC, Arizona State, Oregon State, Stanford and Nagora, a team from Japan.
The Ducks, who finished 14th in last week’s Ping Arizona Intercollegiate tournament will send four of the same five members this week to Hawaii. Senior John Ellis, who tied for 33rd last week at Arizona, senior Chris Carnahan, junior Jimmy White and freshman Gregg LaVoie will be competing in their second tournament of the spring season, while junior Mike Sica will participate in his first tournament of the spring.
Ellis, Oregon’s most consistent player this season, leads the team with an average 71.9 strokes per round, followed by Carnahan at 73.2. White isn’t far behind with an average of 74.2, LaVoie is at 74.9 and Sica is at 75.0.
“I thought we had a pretty good performance out of our seniors last week,” head coach Steve Nosler said. “This is our longest trip of the year, and I think we have a pretty competitive group going to Hawaii.”
The Ducks look to improve on what could have been their fifth-consecutive top-10 tournament finish this season in Arizona. They finished the first round four strokes out of a top five finish. However, the Ducks struggled in their last two rounds, finishing 14th out of 16 teams. Ellis finished tied for 33rd, while Carnahan finished in 38th and White at 47th.