Golfers Pining For Pinehurst
EUGENE – The No. 40-ranked University of Oregon women’s golf team looks forward to its third stop of the spring season early next week in the Pinehurst Challenge, Monday-Tuesday, March 5-6, held on Pinehurst #8 at the Pinehurst Country Club in Pinehurst, N.C.
Oregon is one of four highly-ranked squads in the 18-team field along with No. 33 Princeton, No. 35 Campbell and No. 42 N.C. State. Other teams in the field include Arkansas-Little Rock, Coastal Carolina, Charleston Southern, College of Charleston, East Carolina, James Madison, Marshall, Maryland, Memphis, UNC Greensboro, UNC Wilmington, Penn State, Richmond and Scandinavian Amateur.
Live scoring should be available during the event at the www.GolfStat.com website at the http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/index.cfm?tournament_id=922 URL address.
Looking ahead past next week, the Ducks host the Duck Invitational three weeks later at Shadow Hills Country Club in nearby Junction City, Ore., Mon.-Tue., March 26-27.
In their last stop of the season, the Kitahara Fresno State Invitational, last Mon.-Tue., Feb. 26-27, the then-No. 42 Ducks played without their top player, Kim Cready, and still finished ninth on the Copper River Country Club course. The Duck women shot a 21-over 309 in each round for a 618 overall score, and ended 22 strokes back of team champion and host Fresno State (299-297-596).
Freshman Kate Hildahl posted a 73 final round– her first honor as the Ducks’ low score of the round – and finished in a tie for 32nd place overall (82-73-155) – also the same final place and overall score posted by senior Therese Wenslow (78-77-155). Duck junior Victoria Wenslow followed in a tie for 41st place (75-81-156), and other Duck entries included sophomore Cathryn Bristow (55th-tie, 80-78-158) and freshman Felicia Eastick (55th-tie, 76-82-158).
In this week’s national rankings, McCready and Bristow are the highest ranked Ducks at 103rd (74.16) and 168th (75.13), respectively. Complete rankings are available at the www.Golfweek.com website at the http://www.golfweekrankings.com/college/womens1/individualrankings.asp URL address.
The Ducks made their only other prior appearance at Pinehurst in March 2005, and finished third as a team with a three-round tally of 945, and were led by a trio of top-20 finishers - Kim McCready, Johnna Nealy and Erin Andrews.
The Ducks battled rain, hail and 40 mile-per-hour winds the final day and still shot a 317, their highest of the tournament. Overall, Washington State won the team title with a three-round score of 918, 21 strokes ahead of UNC Wilmington (second, 939).
McCready (ninth, 75-77-81-233) led the Ducks on the par-72, 6,009-yard Pinehurst No. 8 course, and was followed by Nealy (12th-tie, 80-77-78-235) and Andrews (35th-tie, 75-80-81-236). Other Duck entries included Victoria Wenslow (35th-t, 83-81-77-241) and Michielle Timpani (69th-tie, 86-81-84-251).
Oregon head coach Shannon Rouillard is in her seventh 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 Duck player, she was a 1995 Pac-10 honorable mention all-conference honoree for UO and in 1993 took seventh and 29th 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.
Earlier in the fall, Rouillard also made an appearance as a player in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur qualifier, held at Indian Summer Golf and Country Club in Olympia, Wash. The seventh-year Duck coach shot an 82, and won a playoff to finish fourth overall, and is the first alternate for the national championship, set for next week at the Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss., Sat.-Thu., Oct. 21-26.
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