Duck Golfers Prepare for NCAA Championships
WHAT’S ON TAP: Oregon returns to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2003. The Ducks were the second-place team at the May 15-17 NCAA West Regional at Gold Mountain in Bremerton, Wash., and received the No. 16 seed to the 111th annual NCAA Championships, which will be contested May 28-31 at West Lafayette, Ind.
THE GOLF COURSE: The 2008 national championships will be played on Purdue University’s Kampen Golf Course. "The Kampen Course, a Pete Dye redesign completed in 1998, is an 18-hole links-style championship golf course that features large bent-grass greens, fairways and tees," according to the Boilermakers’ web site. Kampen is a par-72 that will play 7,431 yards for the NCAA Championships. It has a slope of 143 with a slope rating of 75.9. The layout presents a challenge for golfers of all abilities with vast sand bunkers, native grasslands, ponds and a natural celery bog," the web site added. Kampen has been rated one of the top collegiate courses in the nation and has been awarded 4.5 stars on Golf Digest’s "Places to Play." The course has played host to a number of prestigious collegiate and public tournaments such as the 2000 Men’s Big Ten championship, the 2003 Women’s NCAA Championship, the 2004 Indiana Open and the 2005 Women’s Western Amateur. More information on Kampen can be found on-line at www.purduegolf.com.
RESULTS: Live scoring will be provided by Golfstat and available on the web (www.golfstat.com). Results, tee times, quotes, recaps and more will be posted by the host Boilermakers on both www.purduesports.com and www.ncaa.com.
HEAD COACH CASEY MARTIN: In just his second year at the helm, head coach Casey Martin has the Ducks headed to the NCAA Championships. The Eugene, Ore., native, former PGA Tour professional and NCAA Champion at Stanford has led the Ducks to 11 top-five finishes in his first 26 tournament as head coach.
OREGON IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: This is Oregon’s 22nd appearance in the NCAA Championships, and its first since 2003. Oregon initially appeared in the Championships in 1947 when the Ducks finished 17th. The University’s highest finish was a fourth-place showing in 1959. Oregon also had top 10 finishes in 1977 (seventh) and 1976 (10th). No current Duck has ever played in the NCAA Championships, though the Ducks qualified for nationals three times (1990, 1997, 1998) under then-head coach Steve Nosler, now Oregon’s assistant head coach to Casey Martin.
THE FIELD: Six Pac-10 teams and 24 of the nation’s top 30 (according to the latest Golfweek/Sagarin rankings) will be in competition at Kampen. USC, ranked No. 3 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index received the top-seed for the 30-team tournament. Georgia holds the top spot in the rankings will be the No. 2 seed in the tournament. No. 17 Wake Forest is the third seed, followed by No. 5 Oklahoma State as the No. 4 seed. No. 14 Clemson is seeded fifth and No. 7 Florida is the No. 6 seed. Also qualifying for the championships (in order by seed) is No. 4 UCLA, No. 27 Alabama-Birmingham, No. 2 Alabama, No. 6 Stanford, No. 16 Auburn, No. 8 Charlotte, No. 18 Texas A&M, No. 10 East Tennessee State, No. 24 Indiana, No. 44 Oregon, No. 43 Augusta State, No. 42 UC Irvine, No. 47 Illinois, No. 23 Louisville, No. 38 Mississippi State, Washington, No. 50 Saint Mary’s, No. 19 Arizona State, No. 33 Kent State, No. 40 Penn State, 36 San Diego State, No. 31 Texas, No. 49 Middle Tennessee State and Virginia. The six individuals in the field are James Sacheck of Texas Christian, Eric Shriver of Pepperdine, Joel Sjoholm from Georgia State, who is ranked No. 4 as an individual, Derek Tolan from Colorado, No. 45 Jurrian Van Der Vaart of Virginia Tech and Dan Woltman of Wisconsin.
THE SEED: As the No. 16 seed, Oregon will play the first two rounds with No. 17 seed Augusta State and No. 18 UC Irvine. The Ducks will have two practice rounds: Monday, May 26 at 11:50 a.m. (CDT) and Tuesday, May 27 at 8 a.m. CST. Oregon’s first round will begin at 7 a.m. (CDT) on Wednesday, May 28, while the Ducks’ second round will begin at 12:12 p.m. (CDT) on Thursday, May 29. Teams will be re-seeded according to score for the third and fourth rounds. The field will be cut to the top 15 teams following the third round.
SWEET 16: The Ducks were also the No. 16 seed for the NCAA West Regional at Gold Mountain in Bremerton, Wash.
THE DUCKS: Oregon started the season hot with five straight top-four finishes in the fall, but then cooled a bit with the tepid winter weather in Eugene. But the Ducks found their pace again in March, taking fourth at Fresno State and tying for second at their own tournament, the Duck Invitational, before placing sixth at the ASU Thunderbird in April. Then the Ducks really turned up the heat with a sizzling second-place performance at the NCAA West regional. On the season, Oregon had 12 top-10 finishes (in 13 events), and eight top-four showings. The Ducks were also consistent in their line-up; the top five (Joey Benedetti, Jack Dukeminier, Sean Maekawa, Derek Sipe, Isaiah Telles) were the same the last 12 tournaments.
THE FRESHMEN: Oregon is one of only three teams in the field expected to start three freshmen (Arizona State and Oklahoma State are the other two): The three Duck rookies are Jack Dukeminier, Sean Maekawa and Isaiah Telles. Dukeminier, from Eugene, Ore., was Oregon’s No. 3 golfer with a 73.2 stroke average. Telles, from Tualatin, Ore., came on late to move into the No. 4 spot (73.6), while Maekawa from Pa’auilo, Hawaii, was brilliant in the fall but up-and-down in the spring for a 74.1 scoring average.
THE SENIORS: While Oregon freshmen accounted for more rounds played than any other class, the Ducks are going to the national championships for the first time in five years thanks to their two seniors, Joey Benedetti and Derek Sipe. Benedetti became the first Oregon golfer to win the NCAA West regional (9-under 207) as led he the Ducks to a best-ever second place finish. The Huntington Beach, Calif., native was an all-Pac-10 second team selection and leads Oregon with a 72.2 scoring average. Fellow senior Derek Sipe is second on the squad with a 72.6 scoring average, including a tie for 11th at the NCAA West regional (even-par 216).
LEADING THE FLOCK: Four different golfers have been Oregon’s best finisher at tournaments this season. Senior Joey Benedetti and freshman Sean Maekawa have each led Oregon four times, including Benedetti pacing the team at both the Pac-10 championships and the NCAA West Regional. Senior Derek Sipe was the Ducks’ top finisher three times in 2007-08, while freshman Jack Dukeminier posted the low-tournament twice.
GOING THROUGH WASHINGTON: The NCAA West Regional at Gold Mountain in Bremerton, Wash., was familiar in a couple of ways for the Ducks. Last fall, Oregon finished fourth at the Husky Invitational played at the course in October. The Ducks would have finished second -- the same played they took in the regional -- had Isaiah Telles not been disqualified in the first round. What’s more, the last time the Ducks advanced on the to NCAA Championships, 2003, the West Regional was held in the state of Washington, at Auburn’s Washington National.
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