University of Oregon
Eugene Country Club
Ducks Enter Weekend Off The Pace After Sluggish First Round
05/27/16 | Men's Golf, @GoDucksMoseley
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
Photo: Andy McNamara
EUGENE, Ore. — If there was a home course advantage Friday for Oregon, during the first round of the NCAA Championships at Eugene Country Club, it wasn't much reflected in the Ducks' scores.
Perhaps feeling the pressure of hosting, the Ducks got off to a slow start Friday, rallied a bit around the turn but then finished poorly to shoot 11-over 291 as a team. With the top teams in the country playing in the afternoon, the UO men seemed poised to enter Saturday's second round well off the pace to finish in the top 15 after Sunday and qualify for the final round of stroke play Monday.
"If we play like we're capable of, we can" make a big move up the standings, UO coach Casey Martin said. "But there's a lot of great teams, and you don't want to give them a head start — which we did."
Two of the four UO players whose cards counted Friday, Thomas Lim and Zach Foushee, opened with double bogeys at No. 1. The Ducks put together enough birdies to sit at 3 over by the time all five players made the turn, but the four counting cards played the last three holes a collective 5 over.
That included a three-putt bogey at No. 17 for super sophomore Aaron Wise, the No. 6 amateur player in the world. Wise responded with a birdie at No. 18 to finish at even-par 70 for his round.
"I was kind of expecting to go low, and you can't do that out here," Wise said. "Obviously these conditions are totally different from what we normally have. We need to dumb down the expectations a little bit and realize even par is a good score."
Fast, firm greens caught the Ducks' attention during a practice round Thursday, and generally warm conditions Friday only exacerbated the challenge. Players said they're accustomed to playing ECC with greens rated at 10 or 11 with a Stimpmeter; on Friday they were closer to 13 or 14.
Those conditions served to make the effort of UO freshman Edwin Yi on Friday all the more impressive. Making his NCAA Championships debut, Yi shot 1-over 71, playing the final 15 holes 1 under after opening with bogeys on No. 1 and No. 3.
"This is a tough course," Martin said. "I love it. It's incredible. But it is really tough. For a freshman to do what he did is very encouraging."
After his second bogey in three holes, at No. 3, Yi turned around and went birdie-birdie at Nos. 4 and 5 to get himself back on track.
"First nationals, it was pretty epic," Yi said. "But once I made a birdie, it came back. It was pretty cool."
Lim was putting together a relatively solid round until his tee shot at the par-3 16th went well left. He took a double bogey there, then bogeyed No. 17 to finish at 5-over 75. That matched the score of Foushee, whose eagle at No. 4 wasn't enough to prevent a round at 5 over.
One of those scores wouldn't have counted, until a late stumble by Sulman Raza. He bogeyed No. 16 and then took a triple at No. 17 to finish at 7-over 77.
"I think we're disappointed; at least, I hope they are," Martin said. "We'll regroup and come out swinging tomorrow."
Players Mentioned
