Ducks Aim to Bounce Back in Desert

TEMPE, Ariz. - The Oregon women's golf team returns to action this week at the PING/ASU invitational in Tempe, kicking off the first of three rounds on Thursday morning at Papago Golf Club.

The No. 12 Ducks are looking to bounce back after a tough showing their last time out, and will do so at a tournament that has brought success in recent years.

Oregon won the 2021 PING/ASU Invitational with a stellar 9-under 279 in the final round, claiming the program's first tournament victory under head coach Derek Radley. The Ducks also finished second in Tempe in 2022, on their way to winning the Pac-12 Championship and finishing as the NCAA runners-up.

UO enters the 2024 PING/ASU Invitational with a 50-32-1 competitive record on the season, headlined by a win at The Molly Collegiate Invitational in the fall. The Ducks have placed in the top-three in four of six stroke-play tournaments this season.

2024 PING/ASU Invitational
Dates: Thursday, March 28 - Saturday, March 30
Course: Papago Golf Club
Par/Yardage: Par 72/6,570 yards
Format: Three rounds of stroke play - one round each day

The Field (17 Teams)
No. 1 Stanford, No. 4 UCLA, No. 6 USC, No. 7 Texas, No. 11 Northwestern, No. 12 Oregon, No. 13 Arizona State (host), No. 14 Arizona, Baylor, California, Colorado, Denver, Kansas, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Oklahoma State, Oregon State

How to Follow
Live scoring for the PING/ASU Invitational will be available on Golfstat. Live updates will be provided on Twitter at @OregonWGolf.

Teeing Off for the Ducks (Scoring Average)
1. Minori Nagano (72.47)
2. Ting-Hsuan Huang (76.33)
3. Anika Varma (74.89)
4. Ching-Tzu Chen (73.39)
5. Ashleigh Park (72.53)

Romero off to Historic Start
Kiara Romero won't be with the Ducks at the PING/ASU Invitational as she prepares for the upcoming Augusta National Women's Amateur, but UO's stellar freshman has been dominant early in her collegiate career. Romero claimed individual medalist honors at the San Diego State Classic earlier this spring, her second win in just her fifth collegiate stroke-play tournament . Romero was named the Pac-12 Golfer of the Week for the second time in 2023-24 after shooting 69-70-68 to win by four strokes with a 9-under 207, tied for the fifth-best 54-hole performance in program history. The victory was fueled by a hole-in-one in the opening round, the first of Romero's college career and astounding ninth in her lifetime on a 193-yard par 3. Romero claimed her first collegiate win in her first tournament as a Duck to kick off the fall season, tying for first at the Annika Intercollegiate with an 8-under 208 (67-71-70). Her career-opening 5-under 67 featured five birdies and zero bogeys, and was the first of 10 straight par-or-better rounds to begin her Oregon career. Romero has shot par-or-better in 15 of her first 18 rounds with six sub-70 performances, and she leads the Ducks with a stellar 70.44 scoring average. The hot start to her career has propelled Romero all the way up to No. 4 in the individual national rankings and No. 25 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

Chen Chasing All-Time Birdie Record
Fifth-year senior Ching-Tzu Chen enters this weekend's tournament with 312 career birdies, just five behind Cathleen Santoso (317, 2014-17) for No. 5 in program history. Chen is just 65 birdies behind Cassy Isagawa (377, 2012-15) for the all-time program record as she prepares for her final postseason with the Ducks.

Huang Leads Ducks in Match Play
Oregon's spring season got off to an unexpected start, when the Therese Hession Regional Challenge was moved up a day and switched from stroke play to match play due to weather in the Los Angeles area. The Ducks went 2-1 with a pair of top-25 wins over No. 25 Mississippi State and No. 19 San Jose State, as well as a narrow loss to No. 6 South Carolina. Freshman Ting-Hsuan Huang led Oregon with a perfect 3-0 record, and Kiara Romero picked up the signature win of the week with a 3&2 victory over a top-five ranked opponent in Mississippi State's Julia Lopez Ramirez.

Park, Ducks Win Molly Collegiate Invite
The Ducks picked up their first win of 2023-24 and eighth under head coach Derek Radley at the Molly Collegiate Invitational in the fall, their second tournament of the season. UO won with a final score of 28-under par behind a historic performance by senior Ashleigh Park, who claimed her first collegiate victory by four strokes at 13-under par (68-67-68). Park's 13-under 203 was the second-best 54-hole performance in program history, and her 5-under 57 in the second round was just one stroke off the best round of her career. Park was named the Pac-12 Golfer of the Week for her victory, joining Romero (twice) as Ducks to win the honor so far in 2023-24.

Up Next
Oregon will co-host the Silverado Showdown with Colorado on April 8-10 in Napa, Calif., the Ducks' final regular-season tournament before the Pac-12 Championships on April 21-23 in Pullman, Wash.