Oregon Hosts Pac-10 Men?s Golf Championships at Eugene CC
EUGENE, Ore. ? The Oregon men’s golf team will host the 2007 Pacific-10 men’s golf championships Monday, April 23 through Wednesday, April 25 at Eugene Country Club. Teams will tee off at 8 a.m. each day and admission is free.
The course will be played from its championship tees with a par of 72 for the 7,033-yard layout. The front nine will play at 3,341 yards with a par of 35. The back nine plays to a par of 37 at 3,692 yards. The tournament is a six play-five count format. Teams will play 36 holes on Monday followed by single rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Half of the 10 teams are ranked in the nation’s top 25, according to the latest Golfweek/Sagarin poll, including three in the top 10. That trio is led by No. 2 Stanford. USC is No. 6 with UCLA No. 7. Overall, nine of the 10 teams are ranked in the nation’s top 60, with Stanford, USC and UCLA joined by No. 19 Arizona State, No. 22 Arizona, No. 35 Washington, No. 55 California, No. 58 Oregon and No. 60 Oregon State.
Oregon is coming off a win at last weekend’s Arizona State’s Thunderbird Invitational and has finished in the top six of it’s last three tournaments to make a strong push for an NCAA Regional bid. The winner of the Pac-10 tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.
At last month’s Oregon Duck Invitational, which was played at Eugene Country Club and featured all 10 Pac-10 teams, the Ducks tied for third with Arizona at 11-over 875. USC won the event at 4-over 868, with Oregon State second at 874. Stanford was fifth at 880, followed by Washington and UCLA tied at 887 and Arizona State at 889.
Three players tied for individual medalist honors -- USC’s Jamie Lovemark, UCLA’s Kevin Chappell and Washington’s Alex Prugh, who all shot 2-under 214. Oregon’s Derek Sipe finished tied for sixth in that event at 3-over 219. It was the second first place finish in the state of Oregon on the season for Lovemark, who also won the fall’s Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge at Bandon’s Pacific Dunes.
UCLA won the 2006 Pac-10 tournament played at Big Horn Golf Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The Bruins shot an even-par 1420 to defeat Washington by 12 strokes.
The 2007 tournament will feature two former champions and the top three individuals from the 2006 event. UCLA’s Daniel Im held off Arizona State’s Niklas Lemke by a stoke to win medalist honors last year, 277-278. Both Im, a junior, and Lemke, a senior, will be in the 2007 field, as will Washington senior Erik Olson, who won the individual title in 2005 and took third a season ago.
Lemke is the top-ranked individual in the field according to Golfstat, coming in at No. 4. Eight of the nation’s top 25 golfers are in the Pac-10, including Lemke, Lovemark at No. 5, Chappell at No. 16 and UCLA’s Lucas Lee at No. 24.
Four Stanford golfers are in the top 25 led by No. 15 Rob Grube. Matthew Savage is at No. 18, followed by Zack Miller at No. 20 and Joseph Bramlett at No. 21.
The Ducks will field the same lineup that has brought them success the last month. Sipe, a junior from Yorba Linda, Calif., leads the team with a 73.2 scoring average and will play No. 1. Junior Joey Benedetti (73.7) will play No. 2 and will be followed by senior Matt Ma (73.9), junior Zeke Reyna (73.6) and freshman Marcus Sostak (74.6). The last spot on the roster will go to either senior Eric Hastings (75.3) or junior Ted Whitney (76.9).
Oregon finished 10th at the 2006 Pac-10 tournament, 80 strokes back of UCLA.
Ma is the only Duck with past success in Pac-10 competition. He tied for 14th as a sophomore at the 2005 tournament. It will be the first Pac-10 experience for Reyna, Sostak and Hastings or Whitney.
Led by current PGA Tour professional Ben Crane, Oregon finished second the last time it hosted the Pac-10 tournament in 1997; that event was also contested at Eugene CC. Steve Nosler, now Oregon’s assistant head coach, was named Pac-10 coach of the year.
Live scoring for the Pac-10 championships can be found at www.golfstat.com, with a tournament central page housed on Oregon’s official web site, www.goducks.com.
- www.GoDucks.com -
