Women's Golf Ready to Host Duck Invite - University of Oregon Athletics

EUGENE? The No. 34-ranked University of Oregon women’s golf team looks forward to its lone home stop of the 2005-06 season next week, and will host the Oregon Duck Invitational, Mon.-Tue., March 27-28 at Emerald Valley Golf Course in nearby Creswell, Ore.

The three-round tournament will feature two 18-hole rounds on Monday, and a final round Tuesday. Action starts both days with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. on the par 72 course that measures 6,191 yards.

Teams will be composed of five players, with the low four scores counted each round. Several teams, including the Ducks, will enter additional individual players.

The 16-team field features three other top-50 teams besides the No.34 Ducks ? No. 46 Washington State, No. 49 San Jose State and No. 50 New Mexico State.

Other teams in the field (and national rankings) include Boise State (96), Fresno State (54), Idaho (64), Idaho State (196), Montana State (135), Oregon State (56), Portland (152), Portland State (109), San Diego State (74), San Francisco (77), Texas-San Antonio (187) and Weber State (144).

Results after each round will be posted on the University of Oregon’s http://www.GoDucks.com athletic department website.

In last year’s event held at Shadow Hills Country Club, California passed Oregon the final day to win by one stroke with a 908. Oregon finished second with a 909 that included the tournament low round ? a second-round 291. Other top-five team finishers included Stanford (third, 913), Washington State (fourth, 917) and Long Beach State (fifth, 919).

Individually, Long Beach State’s Kay Hoey led the field with a three-round 218, and her one-stroke advantage over WSU’s Kim Welch prevented the Cougar senior from a fourth straight Oregon Duck Invitational title.

UO junior Kim McCready paced UO in last year’s edition (third, 909-75-69-76), and carded the tourney’s low score in the second round (69). Three other UO’s entries from last year return in ’06 ? seniors Erin Andrews (15^th-tie, 231=78-75-78) and Michelle Timpani (32^nd-tie, 236= 81-65-69) and sophomore Victoria Wenslow (40^th-tie, 239=79-78-82). UO’s other entry last year was now-graduated NCAA qualifier Johnna Nealy (seventh, 224=77-71-76).

Looking ahead past UO’s home stop, the Duck women travel the following weekend to the Ping/ASU Invitational on Arizona State’s Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz., Fri.-Sun., March 31-April 2. Two weeks later, Oregon will head to the Illini Spring Classic at Stone Creek Golf Club in Champaign, Ill., Fri.-Sat., April 14-15. The Midwest stop is a make-up date after flight delays forced UO to miss its spring opener last month ? the Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Ariz., Mon.-Tue., Feb. 20-21.

In this week’s Golf Week rankings, the No. Ducks stood 34^th ? and remained in the national top 40 just as they have all year. UO was one of eight Pac-10 teams ranked top 30 nationally, and were joined by No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Arizona State, No. 4 USC, No. 12 California, No. 17 Arizona No. 21 Stanford, and No. 25 Washington, while Washington State (46^th) and Oregon State (56^th) also stood top-60.

Individually, the Ducks had three players ranked top 200 nationally this week - Duck freshman Cathryn Bristow (145th, 74.77 rating), and juniors Kim McCready (158^th, 74.87 rating) and Therese Wenslow (186^th, 75.40 rating).

A link to current national women’s golf GolfWeek / Sagarin team and individual rankings are available at the http://www.golfweek.com/college/around_campus/index.php URL address.

In their last action a month ago in the Kitara Fresno State Invitational, Feb. 27-28, then-No. 29 Oregon placed eighth with a two-round 607 on the par-72, 6,004-yard course at Copper River Country Club in Fresno, Calif. In the individual standings, sophomore Victoria Wenslow led UO both rounds and tied for sixth (146=72-74), and was followed by senior Erin Andrews (47^th, 153=77-76), freshman Cathryn Bristow (53^rd-tie, 154=77-77), senior Michelle Timpani (63^rd-tie, 157=76-81) and redshirt junior Therese Wenslow (75^th-tie, 157=76-81).

UO head coach Shannon Rouillard is in her sixth season at the helm and guided Oregon to 11th place in the 2000 NCAA Championships, and top-12 West Regional finishes in 2001 (ninth), ?04 (eighth-tie) and ’05 (10th). As a player, she was a 1995 Pac-10 honorable mention all-conference honoree for UO and in 1993 took seventh and 29^th in the Pac-10 and NCAA Championships, respectively. After her collegiate career, she was a 1999 Women's U.S. Open qualifier after she claimed medalist honors in the Lake Merced (Calif.) qualifying tournament.

- www.GoDucks.com ?