Women's Golf Hosts Duck Invite at Shadow Hills
EUGENE – The No. 54-ranked University of Oregon women’s golf team looks forward to its home tournament and fourth stop of the spring season next week in the Duck Invitational, Monday-Tuesday, March 26-27, held at Shadow Hills Country Club in nearby Junction City, Ore.
Oregon is one of 14 squads in the field along with No. 38 San Francisco and No. 46 Washington State, Boise State, Central Arkansas, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, Idaho State, Montana State, Oregon State, Portland State, San Diego State, Texas-San Antonio and Wyoming.
Teams tee off in shotgun format each morning at 9:00 a.m. (PT), and will play 36 holes Monday and 18 holes Tuesday.
Afterwards, the Ducks wrap up their regular season in the Indiana Invitational, held at Crooked Stick Golf Course in Carmel, Ind., on Mon.-Tue., April 9-10. The Pac-10 Championships follow Mon.-Wed., April 23-25 at the Broadmoor Golf Course in Seattle, Wash.
In their last stop of the season, the Pinehurst Challenge, Mon.-Tue., March 5-6, the then-No. 42 Ducks played without their top player, senior Kim McCready, and finished 13th on Pinehurst #8 course (326-322-648).
Sophomore Cathryn Bristow and freshman Kate Hildahl led UO and ended in ties for 33rd (82-77-159) and 38th places (83-77-160) overall, respectively. Bristow led the Ducks for the sixth time in the overall standings among her 14 collegiate event appearances. Hildahl was one stroke away from similar honors for the second time in her career after she paced the team the previous week in the Kitahara Fresno State Invitational with Therese Wenslow.
Also in the North Carolina stop, freshman Felicia Eastick followed three strokes back (49th, 82-81-163), and other Duck entries included junior Victoria Wenslow (72nd, 79-88-167) and senior Therese Wenslow (80th, 84-87-171).
In this week’s national rankings, McCready and Bristow are the highest ranked Ducks at 107th (74.25) and 230th (76.00), respectively. Complete rankings are available at the www.Golfweek.com website at the http://www.golfweekrankings.com/college/womens1/individualrankings.asp URL address.
Last year at the Duck Invitational, held at Emerald Valley Golf Course in Creswell, Ore., the Ducks took sixth (318-306-309-933), and were without two players who missed the tourney because of injuries. Then- freshman Cathryn Bristow carded the team’s low rounds of the tourney in the second and third rounds with a 74 and 72 to tie for ninth overall at 933. UO also claimed three other top-30 finishers - Erin Andrews (21st-tie, 235, 80-77-78), Victoria Wenslow (24th-tie, 236, 79-76-81) and Therese Wenslow (26th-tie, 237, 80-79-78) – and Michelle Timpani added a tie for 47th place (245, 79-84-82).
Overall on the par 72, 6,191-yard course, San Jose won by one stroke (918, 307-305-306-908) over Oregon State (second, 919, 310-305-304), first-day team leader Idaho (third, 300-315-308) and Washington State (fourth, 924, 306-313-305). Individually, San Francisco's Jessica Potter won a three-hole playoff over Washington State's Anastasia Kostina as Potter shot a bogey and Kostina double-bogeyed the final hole. The two players ended regulation tied at 221 after Potter shot a 1-under 71 final round, two strokes better than Kostina.
The Ducks last played the tourney at Shadow Hills in the spring of ’05. McCready tied for third overall (75-69-76-200), and was followed by recent Duck graduates Johnna Nealy (seventh-tie, 77-71-76-224), Erin Andrews (15th-tie, 78-75-78-231) and Michelle Timpani (32nd-tie, 81-76-79-236) and then-frosh Victoria Wenslow (40th-tie, 79-78-82-239).
Overall in the ’05 event, California won by one stroke (310-296-302) over UO (second, 309-291-309-909), and Stanford followed in third place (315-294-304-913). Long Bach State’s Kay Hoey won the individual title (75-69-76-220) by one stroke over Washington State’s Kim Welch (second, 73-70-76-219), and UO’s McCready finished in a three-way tie for third place another stroke back.
Going back in history, Oregon has hosted the tournament 11 times since its debut in 1989, and has finished top-five six times – 1989 (fifth, 971), ’90 in the spring (second, 940), ’92 (fourth, 945), ’99 (second, 621), ’04 (second, 914) and ’05 (second, 909).
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.
- www.GoDucks.com -
