Avrit Finds Peace Under Pressure
03/26/23 | Men's Golf, @GoDucksMoseley
Owen Avrit has found ways to thrive in clutch moments, and he leads Oregon into the Duck Invitational at Eugene Country Club beginning Monday.
The recent history of Oregon men's golf includes some of the best players in the program's rich tradition. In the last decade, the Ducks' lineup has been headlined by guys including Aaron Wise, Wyndham Clark and Norman Xiong, each now excelling in the professional ranks.
It's looking like that fraternity could soon gain a new member.
When the UO men take the course at Eugene Country Club for the two-day Duck invitational beginning Monday, they'll be led by a reigning Pac-12 men's golfer of the week. Owen Avrit earned that accolade after taking medalist honors and helping Oregon win the team title March 14 in the Bandon Dunes Championship. On Tuesday, updated Golfstat rankings listed Avrit as the No. 20 collegiate player in the country.
The conference honor was the second of Avrit's season, following a November award for winning at the Cal Poly Invitational. Wise is the only other Oregon men's golfer to earn multiple Pac-12 Conference honors in the same season, on his way to the NCAA individual championship in 2016; Wise then handed the baton as the Ducks' No. 1 player to Clark, who passed it to Xiong.
Now, Avrit appears to be taking it.
"Owen's trending to be one of those guys," UO coach Casey Martin said. "He's such a mature person, on and off the golf course. Very steady, very disciplined. And his hard work is paying off."
A native of Arroyo Grande on the central California coast, Avrit identified Oregon as his "dream school" after watching Wise lead the Ducks to the NCAA team title in 2016. He spent one season at Long Beach State before moving to Eugene, where he was second-team all-conference in leading Oregon to the NCAA Championship tournament last spring.
The son of a college instructor, Avrit himself is professorial in appearance and demeanor. Purposeful in everything he does, he's on a trajectory to leading the Ducks back to contention at the NCAA Championships, and to making a name for himself in the professional ranks.
"I've always known what I was capable of," Avrit said. "My biggest goal is just getting better every day, and working towards being a successful professional golfer. These awards? It's an honor to receive them. But these are just small stepping stones toward where I'm trying to reach."
A lithe player, Avrit might not command attention while getting in work on the practice range. But his results on the course demand the spotlight.
Entering the Duck Invitational, Avrit's scoring average this season is 69.94. Of his 17 tournament rounds, 13 have been played at or below par. Oregon has played six tournaments entering Monday at Eugene Country Club, and Avrit has finished in the top 10 of five.
"The thing I love about Owen, and the thing that makes him good, is what's under the hood," Martin said. "The stuff you can't really tell by watching him hit balls on the range. Now, he's very good at that. But what makes him stand out is the internal stuff — emotional stability, his self-belief, all that stuff you can't see initially. But once you're around him you see: He's got it."
The mentality Avrit demonstrates on the golf course has been hard-won. Golf came easy for him, until it didn't. His first significant struggles on the course, early in high school, coincided with a life-changing period of his youth.
Avrit was in his early teenage years when he was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. In the process of working through that diagnosis, Avrit was introduced to the concept of mindfulness. Before long, his life — including his golf — got back on track.
"That just gave me a better perspective on everything," Avrit said. "Realizing that my goals in life — the only expectations I'm trying to live up to — are ones that I put on myself. I can't control what other people think or do. I can only control my processes, and just focus on what I can control and why. And that really helped me perform."
The physical requirements of golf had never been a question. Introduced to the game along with his older brother by their father, Avrit first picked up a club at 2 years old.
Quickly, he became one of the top junior players in the greater San Luis Obispo community. Around middle school, the boys ranged north and south throughout California seeking out bigger tournaments. Success followed.
Early in high school, Avrit began entering events on a more national stage. He was entering the prime period for attracting the eyes of college recruiters. But addressing his mental health became a priority.
"I wasn't doing as well as I liked," Avrit said. "I wasn't doing terribly; still solid for the Division-I level. But not top-notch. I felt like I belonged on that trajectory. And that's when I started working on mindfulness."
"That's been huge. Because it's really important to me that I stay in the present. I have these end goals in mind, but it's about not getting too wrapped up in that. Just focusing on, what do I need to do every single day in order to achieve my goal of being the best golfer on the planet?"
That process got Avrit back on track. He helped his high school team win a league title as a junior, and was named league MVP as a senior. He won major junior tournaments after his sophomore and junior seasons, and after his senior year he enrolled at Long Beach State.
Avrit has family in the Pacific Northwest, and had envisioned himself possibly living there one day. When he watched the UO men win the 2016 NCAA title, and finish as runner-up in 2017, Oregon became his dream school. But the Ducks didn't have a spot for him on their 2019-20 roster.
As a freshman at Long Beach, Avrit played in seven events with a scoring average of 71.80. When the pandemic hit, he looked for a new home. Within three days of entering the transfer portal, he was committed — finally — to his dream school.
Now playing for the Ducks, Avrit isn't in any hurry to leave. The fledgling "PGA Tour University" program allows college players to earn status on the PGA Tour or its subsidiaries based on their play in NCAA tournaments. Avrit intends to play a fifth year at Oregon in 2024, looking to earn his tour card.
Results from this season won't factor into that effort. But thanks to his mindfulness training, Avrit is all about process. This spring, he's practicing the process of being the kind of player who can earn his PGA Tour card next year.
"It's really just about growth," Avrit said. "Getting myself in position where I'm comfortable being in contention every single event. Learning how to win, and what it takes to perform at a high level."
Martin said Avrit can benefit from gaining a few pounds of muscle over the next year. But he's never going to cut the kind of figure Xiong does, with his big, physical frame.
As ever for Avrit, success will come through his mental process. He's not a robot; Avrit makes time for rest and relaxation away from golf. But everything he does is calculated toward achieving his goals.
"Aaron and Owen are a little different that way," Martin said. "What makes them better is what you can't see. But once you're around them a lot, you start seeing those patterns, and it's been really, really fun to see. He's carried us in a lot of ways."
Experts debate whether a metaphorical "clutch gene" is present in some athletes. If it does, Avrit might be a case study.
Last spring at NCAA Regionals, Avrit birdied three of his final four holes to help the Ducks claw their way in the NCAA Championships. At that tournament, hosted by Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., Avrit hit a birdie putt on the final hole of his second round; that helped Oregon earn a spot in the morning wave for the third round, crucial in avoiding Arizona's afternoon winds and thus in helping the UO men qualify for the fourth and final round of stroke play.
And in Oregon's most recent tournament, at Bandon Dunes, Avrit birdied three of the last four holes to win medalist honors by two strokes.
All the mindfulness training in the world, Avrit said, can't keep nerves away in situations like those. What it can do is equip him to process them, and play well despite them.
"In golf it doesn't matter who you are, you'll definitely feel it in those moments," Avrit said. "It's just about recognizing them, and being grateful for the opportunity to experience those nerves.
"The amount of people who would give anything to be in that position: Coming down the stretch to win a golf tournament, competing in Division-I golf for a great school. All those opportunities, I'm incredibly grateful for. Having that perspective in those pressure moments allows me to be really comfortable. If I pull it off, awesome. If I don't, it's not the end of the world. It doesn't define me."
It took Avrit a couple of hard years working through his mental health to find that peace of mind. Now that he has it, he never wants to let it go.
"My number one goal in every single tournament is to have fun, enjoy myself," he said. "Why do I play golf? Because I think it's the most fun game in the world. And I'm just incredibly grateful for all that the game has provided me, and where it's taken me."
Where it has taken him, and where it is taking him.
Players Mentioned
