Omlid Advances to Oregon Amateur Championship
CANBY, Ore. – University of Oregon junior Erica Omlid enjoyed a pair of wins in the Oregon Amateur Championship match play quarterfinals and semifinals Friday to advance to Saturday’s 36-hole finale.
The Springfield, Ore., native and 13th-seeded Duck opened the day with a 3 and 2 quarterfinal win over fifth-seeded Kailin Downs of Corvallis, then topped 16th-seeded Tiffany Schoning of Portland, 3 and 2, in the semifinal.
Omlid won five holes against Downs, thanks to her birdie on the 13th hole and four par scores (#1, 6, 9 and 12). The duo tied on eight holes with pars on holes #3-4, 7, 10-11, 14-16, while Downs won the second and eight holes by one stroke with her bogey and par, respectively.
Friday afternoon, Omlid returned to the same Willamette Valley Country Club to defeat her former teammate Schoning who now plays for Portland State.
Omlid overcome a two-hole deficit after the second hole, and claimed five of the next seven holes to finish the front side (and tied the other two), thanks to two birdies (#4-5) and three par scores (#7-9).
On the back nine, Schoning again won a pair to whittle her deficit to one stroke, thanks to a birdie and bogey on #10-11. Omlid answered with a win on the 12th with her par score, tied holes 13-15, then carded another birdie on #16 to win the hole by two strokes and end the contest with two holes remaining.
Looking ahead to Saturday, Omlid will face seventh-seeded Monica Vaughn who needed 19 holes to defeat second-seeded and former Duck coach and player Lara Tennant in the quarterfinal, then topped third-seeded Amanda Jacobs of Portland in the semifinal in the 22-hole affair.
Live hole-by-hole results from Saturday’s two-round match play finale (and previous rounds scores and an overall bracket) are available at the http://www.ghintpp.com/OREGONGA/TPPOnlineScoring/MatchTree.aspx?id=41 URL address.
In previous days, Omlid won in the Round of 16 Thursday over fourth-seeded Caitlin McCleary, 5 and 4, and 7-5 in Wednesday’s opener over 20th-seeded Ashley King of Blue River. Also on Wednesday, 21st-seeded teammate and senior Kate Hildahl lost 2-up to 12th-seeded Kristen Svicarovich of Hillsboro.
The Duck duo competed on the same course Monday and Tuesday in the opening rounds of stroke play and shot scores of 154 and 160 to tie for 11th and 21st, respectively, in the 40-person field. In the overall standings, returning event champion Amy Simanton (72-72-144) topped the field by two strokes in the 36-hole competition, and was followed by Tennant (second, 72-74-146).
Omlid followed the lead of Duck teammate and junior Kendra Little who lost 1-up in 2009’s finale to Simanton, and Hildahl topped former Duck Karly Mills to win the ’08 event.
More information on the event is available at the www.oga.org website.
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