NOTES: Ducks Set to Compete at NCAA Championships
05/16/16 | Women's Golf
NATION'S ELITE DESCEND ON EUGENE
The Eugene Country Club and the University of Oregon will play host to the best amateur golfers in the country when they host the NCAA Women's Golf Championships May 20-25. The top six teams from the four regional sites (Stanford, Calif.; Baton Rouge, La.; Bryan, Texas and Shoal Creak, Ala.) secured their spot in the field.
FORMAT
The 2016 Championships will feature the second year under the revised format. The 24-team field will play 54 holes of stroke play over the course of three days. The top 15 teams will then play one more round of stroke play on Monday, May 23. The top eight teams at the end of Monday's round will move into the match-play single elimination bracket. Tuesday will feature the quarterfinals and semifinals. The finals will be played Wednesday afternoon.
GOLF CHANNEL BROADCAST INFO
Golf Channel will provide unprecedented prime time coverage of the NCAA Women's Golf Championships. Twelve and a half hours of live event programming will be shown starting on Monday, May 23 and concluding with the match play finals on Wednesday afternoon.
DUCKS SECURE SPOT IN CHAMPIONSHIPS
After advancing to their ninth straight Regional, the Ducks accomplished their season-long goal of finishing in the top six and advancing to the national championships, held on their home course at Eugene Country Club. UO finished fifth in the Baton Rouge Regional, advancing to the championships for the third time under current head coach Ria Scott and the first time since 2013.
THE FIELD
Oregon will join 23 other institutions in the NCAA Championship field. The seeding is as follows:
1 - Alabama
2 - USC
3 - UCLA
4 - Florida
5 - Duke
6 - Georgia
7 - Northwestern
8 - Oklahoma State
9 - Arizona
10 - Arkansas
11 - Stanford
12 - Washington
13 – Virginia
14 - Florida State
15 - South Carolina
16 – Furman
17 – OREGON
18 – Tennessee
19 - Texas
20 - Ohio State
21 - BYU
22 - Miami (FL)
23 - North Carolina
24 – Michigan
COMPETING DUCKS
No. 1 – Cathleen Santoso
No. 2 – Caroline Inglis
No. 3 – Kathleen Scavo
No. 4 – Petra Salko
No. 5 – Marcella Pranovia
TOURNAMENT HISTORY
As a team, the Ducks have advanced to the NCAA Championships nine times in program history. The last time UO advanced was in 2013, finishing 22nd in Athens, Ga. The lone senior on this year's Oregon team, Caroline Inglis, competed at the Championships in 2013, shooting a 23-over 311 over the four rounds.
The best team finish came in 1997 when the Ducks finished seventh. The top individual finish at the NCAA Championships was in 1998 when Paula Patterson finished in a tie for 12th.
LAST TIME OUT
The Ducks visited the University Club of Baton Rouge with one goal and that was playing the best golf they could. UO did that and they finished fifth in the 18-team regional field, securing themselves a spot in the NCAA Championships. The Ducks shot a 6-over 294 in the final round, placing them two strokes ahead of sixth-place BYU. For the tournament, UO finished at 18-over (292-296-294 – 882).
Continuing her outstanding play over the past last month, Cathleen Santoso once again led the Ducks in the final round. The junior posted her second under-par round of the tournament, carding a 1-under 71. After being bogeying twice in the first three holes, Santoso proceeded to fire three birdies over the next four holes and shot a 1-under 35 on the front nine. A bogey on the 11th hole to put her at even-par but she came back and sunk birdies on the 15th and 16th holes to go 2-under. She bogeyed on the par-4 17th hole, but made par on the 18th to end the round at 1-under.
Marcella Pranovia also played her best golf of the tournament in the final round as she shot a 1-under 71. The junior started off strong, sinking four birdies on the front nine to sit at 2-under heading into the turn. On the back nine, she fired two more birdies and was 3-under through 16 holes, but back-to-back bogeys pushed her up to 1-under for the round.
Caroline Inglis brought in the next best card as she shot a 3-over 75. The senior only bogeyed once on the front nine and then fired two birdies to go 1-under through 12. She followed up a 13th-hole bogey by sinking a birdie on the par-5 14th hole to get back down to 1-under. She then ran into trouble on the final four holes, recording bogeys on each to end at 3-over. Kathleen Scavo rounded out the counting scores as she carded a 5-over 77.
“It was great to see a year's worth of preparation and hard work pay off,” head coach Ria Scott said. “Our team did a great job of treating the regional like any other tournament. Other teams were stuck trying to make the top six, but we went out attempting to play the best we could. It's a new beginning once the championships start at Eugene Country Club. The seeds can get thrown out the window...these girls are coming home to play!”
IN THE RANKINGS
After recording top-five finishes in five of the six spring tournaments, the Ducks have shown that they are among the nation's elite. The latest Golfstat.com Rankings, posted on May 9, had Oregon ranked No. 20 in the nation. The ranking is the highest a team has achieved since the record book started in 1993. In head coach Ria Scott's six years at the helm of the program, her teams own six of the seven highest rankings in school history.
INGLIS ETCHES NAME IN RECORD BOOK
Coming into her senior season, Caroline Inglis was already a familiar name when looking at the Oregon golf record book. This year, the Eugene, Ore.-native continues her outstanding career in a Duck uniform as she leads the team in scoring average, top ten finishes, counters and rounds at even-par or better. Inglis has three seasons where her scoring average is in the top ten. Last year, she set a new record by averaging 72.21, surpassing Cassy Isagawa's previous record of 72.76. This year, Inglis has the sixth-best average ever at 73.00. For her four-year career, Inglis is averaging 73.67 over 131 rounds played, good for the third-best ever. She is also second in career counting scores with 127, just two away from Isagawa's record of 129. Inglis has played 131 rounds during her career, the third-most for an UO golfer and she has a chance to overtake second-place holder Kendra Little, who competed in 134 rounds during her career.
RECORD-SETTING SEASON
The 2015-16 season has one of the best ever in Oregon golf history. Not only did the team achieve the highest program ranking of No. 20, but the team's scoring average on the season is the second-lowest ever at 294.58. The team has won two tournaments (East-West Match Play Challenge and Silverado Showdown), tying them for No. 4 in the record book for wins in a season. The Ducks have shot six even-par or better rounds on the season, good for the third most ever.
SCOTT SETS NEW STANDARD
Head Coach Ria Scott took over the Oregon women's golf program in 2010 and has steadily lifted the Ducks up to one of the nation's elite teams. Under Scott's tutelage, Oregon has consistently been ranked in the top 40 and this year the Ducks reached the highest ranking in program history at No. 20. Scott's squads own numerous program records including team scoring average (2014-15, 292.66), team low round (2014 Westbrook Invitational, 274), team low round vs. par (2014 Westbrook Invitational, 274 (-14)), team low 54-hole tournament (2014 Westbrook Invitational - 848 (-16)) and season team even-par or better rounds (2014-15, 9). Her current and former players are some of the best ever to come through the program, including two-time All-American Cassy Isagawa (2012-15), all-time wins leader Kendra Little (2008-11) and the season scoring average leader, Caroline Inglis (2013-present).
