After Battling Back From Injury, Yi Looks To Finish On High Note

An ankle injury deprived Edwin Yi of the senior season he had hoped to enjoy. But it may have healed just in time for the UO men's golfer to finish on a high note.

Yi, a senior from Beaumont, Calif., begins play Friday in the NCAA Championship tournament in Fayetteville, Ark. Though Oregon's full team was unable to advance through an NCAA Regional in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Yi did so as an individual by finishing second overall, at 14-under par.

That Yi will be playing in the national championship event is no surprise given the scope of his career; this will be the fourth in his four years with the Ducks, including the 2016 NCAA Championships in which Oregon took home the team title. But an ankle injury suffered in late February nearly derailed Yi's goal of being an all-American as a senior.

After grinding through a spring season in which he balanced rehabbing the injury with battling to play competitive golf, Yi hit rock bottom in the Pac-12 Championship tournament. But a three-week break between that event and NCAA Regionals was just enough time for Yi to get healthy and get his game back up to his standards.

"If I didn't get hurt, I could have potentially had an all-American season," Yi said Tuesday, before departing for Arkansas. "But it's not over yet."

Last fall, Yi set the stage for exactly the senior year he wanted to experience. In four tournaments he posted three top-20 finishes. Then in the spring opener, in Hawaii in February, Yi went under 70 in all three rounds and finished tied for second. He came home from the Amer Ari Invitational ranked No. 22 in the nation, on a trajectory to be selected for all-America status come season's end.

But after shooting 1 over and tying for 11th at The Prestige two weeks later, Yi's season went sideways. The cause: a sprained ankle suffered while on a run during the epic snow storm that hit Eugene in late February. He missed multiple weeks of practice, and the Bandon Dunes Championship in mid-March.

Medical staff told Yi the injury would need three or four months to heal completely. He will tee off Friday in Arkansas exactly three months after being hurt.

Yi played his first tournament after the injury March 25-26, the Duck Invitational at Emerald Valley Golf Club in nearby Creswell. All three rounds, he shot above 70, something he'd only done once in six previous tournaments during the fall and spring. It was the same story in April at the Western Intercollegiate; in between, Yi played three rounds at The Goodwin and several more at a Q-school event in Arizona.

For the sake of his ankle, he needed time off. But for the sake of his career, he needed to keep playing.

The grind finally got to Yi in the Pac-12 Championships, played at Eugene Country Club from April 22-24. He was 21 over for the tournament. After spending most of the year as Oregon's No. 1 player, Yi was the team's worst finisher in all four rounds. His score never was good enough to count to the Ducks' team total.

"You have to drive the ball long, especially on Eugene," Yi said. "And because I was uncomfortable with my ankle, even at that point, I just wasn't trusting my swing. I felt like I was guiding it, and so my misses were worse.

"If you not hitting good drives, you're not gonna get good second shots. And if you're not gonna get good second shots, you can't really make birdie."

A much-needed respite came after that tournament. Doctors could get more aggressive in their treatment during the three weeks before regionals, and Yi could take time off. He needed the break mentally, too, although he went to regionals with doubts still clouding his mind.

Soon after Yi teed off in South Carolina, though, the clouds lifted. He strung together four pars to open his NCAA Regional, then got hot — four straight birdies.

"It was my last regional event, and I wanted to help the team make it (to nationals)," Yi said. "Somehow, everything just clicked."

At Pac-12s, Yi didn't hit more than two fairways in any single round. In the first round at regionals, he only missed two. He went on to shoot 69-67-66—202, his third-lowest three-round total all year, and his second lowest in relation to par (14 under).

Yi's game was back. And now, so too are his goals of being an all-American.