It had been a spectacular spring of golf for Oregon heading into the Pac-12 Championship and, wouldn’t you know it, it was the Ducks’ turn to host the conference championship on their home course, Eugene Country Club.
The stars were aligned perfectly and Oregon, No. 2 in the latest Golfstat rankings, continued its spring roll by winning the first Pac-12 Championship team crown in the history of the program, beating Stanford, the No. 1 team in the country and a perennial Pac-12 power, and cross-state rival Oregon State by seven shots.
The Pac-12 Championship wrapped up April 20th. There was a little bit of some typical wet and chilly Oregon spring weather that plagued the second round, which didn’t seem to bother Oregon’s Hsin-Yu (Cynthia) Lu, a sophomore from Taiwan and No. 25 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), one little bit as she fired the best round of the tournament, a sparkling 6-under 66 over the 6,267-yard, par-72 Eugene Country Club layout on her way to the individual crown.
The squeegees were out in force in the still photos on teams’ websites from the second round.
Oregon had trailed Stanford by five shots after the Ducks opened with a 7-over 295 in the first round. But Oregon came alive after a five-hour rain delay interrupted the second round, carding a solid 3-under 285. By the time Stanford returned the following day to finish up its second round, the Cardinal trailed Oregon by three shots.
The Ducks closed with a 2-over 290 to finish with a 6-over 870 total that gave them their third tournament win of the spring to go along with two runnerup finishes.
The final round also proved to be a banner day for Oregon State, which moved up two spots in the Golfstat rankings from No. 29 to No. 27 in the aftermath of the Pac-12 Championship. The Beavers matched Oregon for the low team round of the week with a final round of 3-under 285 to share second place with Stanford with a 13-over 877 total. It was the best finish in the Pac-12 Championship in program history.
Oregon State had put together back-to-back 8-over 296s in the first two rounds and trailed Oregon by 12 shots going into the final round.
Stanford, behind the best women’s amateur player on the planet, Rose Zhang, a freshman from Irvine, Calif., had grabbed the lead with its opening round of 2-over 290 and added a 5-over 293 after being forced to finish its second round the following day. The Cardinal closed with a 6-over 294 to get a share of second place with Oregon State at 13-over.
Zhang was her usual consistent self, sandwiching an even-par 72 in the weather challenged second round with a pair of 1-under 71s to finish in second place, four shots behind Lu with a 2-under 214 total. Lu and Zhang were the only players in the stellar field to finish under par for 54 holes.
The Stanford lineup did not include Rachel Heck, a sophomore from Memphis, Tenn. and No. 3 in the Women’s WAGR. As a freshman a year ago, Heck swept to the individual titles in the Pac-12 Championship and the NCAA Stanford Regional, both played on the Cardinal’s home course, and in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Not sure if Heck is nursing an injury, although it is possible she didn’t make it through a Stanford qualifier for the Pac-12 Championship. There aren’t many programs in which a reigning NCAA individual champion would fail to survive a team qualifier, but Stanford is one of them.
When the regional fields were unveiled a week after the Pac-12 Championship, both Oregon and Stanford were the top seeds in their respective regionals, the Ducks in Albuquerque and the Cardinal on their home course in the Stanford Regional. Oregon State is a dangerous fifth seed in the Franklin Regional.
Three more perennial Pac-12 powers, UCLA, Southern California and Arizona, were lined up behind Oregon State and Stanford in the next three spots in the team standings.
UCLA, which moved up from No. 16 to No. 10 in the Golfstat rankings after its strong showing in Eugene, finished alone in fourth place with a 17-over 881 total, four shots behind Stanford and Oregon State. The Bruins, who are seeded second in the Tallahassee Regional, sandwiched a 1-over 289 in the second round with a pair of 8-over 296s.
No. 12 Southern Cal and Arizona, which moved up from No. 26 to No. 23 in the Golfstat rankings in the aftermath of the Pac-12 Championship, finished in a tie for fifth place, each landing on 20-over 884, three shots behind UCLA.
The Trojans, who are seeded second behind Pac-12 rival Stanford at the Stanford Regional, carded back-to-back 4-over 292s in the first two rounds before struggling to a 300 in the final round.
The Wildcats, who will join Oregon in Albuquerque as the four seed, struggled in the opening round with a 305, but bounced back with a 3-over 291 in the second round before matching par in the final round with a 288.
Oregon’s Lu matched par in the opening round, but then went off in the rain-plagued second round, particularly on the back nine at Eugene. Lu was 1-under for her round after making a birdie at the fifth hole and then rattled off five birdies in a seven-hole stretch on the incoming nine. Lu made birdies at the 10th, 11th, 13th, 15th and 16th holes.
Lu matched par in the final round with another 72 for a 6-under 210 total that was four shots clear of the runnerup Zhang.
Backing up Lu for Oregon was another member of the Ducks’ Taiwan connection as the only senior in their lineup, Tze-Han (Heather) Lin, No. 90 in the Women’s WAGR, finished in a tie for seventh place with a 3-over 219 total. Lin added a 1-over 73 in the second round to her opening-round 74 before matching par in the final round with a 72.
Briana Chacon, a junior from Whittier, Calif. and No. 93 in the Women’s WAGR, had back-to-back 1-over 73s in the final two rounds to finish in the group tied for 13th place with a 5-over 221 total. Chacon had opened with a 3-over 75.
Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen, a junior from Denmark, matched Chacon’s back-to-back 1-over 73s in the final two rounds as she ended up among the group tied for 31st place with a 225 total. Kibsgaard Nielsen had struggled to a 79 in the opening round.
Rounding out the Oregon lineup was junior Ching-Tzu Chen, a third member of the Ducks’ first five from Taiwan who finished in the group tied for 36th place with a 227 total. Chen opened with a solid 2-over 74 before adding a 76 in the second round and finishing up with a 77.
A couple of Italians, Arizona freshman Carolina Melgrati, who is No. 35 in the Women’s WAGR, and UCLA redshirt freshman Alessia Nobilio, who is No. 67 in the Women’s WAGR, shared third place, three shots behind Zhang, each landing on 1-over 217.
After opening with a 1-over 73, Melgrati matched par in each of the final two rounds with a pair of 72s. Nobilio matched par in each of the first two rounds before closing with a 1-over 73.
Southern California’s freshman phenom, Amari Avery of Riverside, Calif. and No. 21 in the Women’s WAGR, and Oregon State’s Kelsey Webster, a senior from Boulder, Colo., finished in a tie for fifth place as each ended up with a 2-over 218 total.
Avery didn’t join the Southern Cal lineup until January and made an immediate impact, winning individual titles in the second and third tournaments in which she teed it up. She finished in a tie for fourth place in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship.
Avery’s rise has been so meteoric that it caught the attention of the USGA International Team Selection working group, which made Avery one of the last additions to the United States team for the Curtis Cup Match against Great Britain & Ireland, which tees off in 40 days at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township.
Stanford’s Zhang and Heck, holdovers from the come-from-behind 12.5-7.5 victory for the U.S. in last summer’s Curtis Cup Match at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales, were previously named to the U.S. team. One of Avery’s pals from junior golf, Megha Ganne of Holmdel, N.J., was also named to the team along with Avery a couple of weeks ago. When Ganne finishes high school this spring, she’s headed to Stanford, of course, to play college golf.
After opening with a 2-over 74, Avery registered a solid 4-under 68 in the second before closing with a 76. Webster added a 74 in the second round to her opening round of 1-over 73 before closing with a 1-under 71.
Joining Oregon’s Lin in a tie for seventh place at 3-over 219 was Stanford’s Brooke Seay, a junior from San Diego. After matching par in the opening round with a 72, Seay, an alternate for the U.S. Curtis Cup team, added a 74 in the second round before closing with a 1-over 73.
Rounding out the top 10 in the individual standings in the Pac-12 Championship was a foursome that included two more Italians, UCLA junior Emilie Paltrinieri and Arizona State senior Alessandra Fanali, who is No. 95 in the Women’s WAGR, Washington State’s Darcy Habgood, a senior from Australia, and Washington’s Stefanie Deng, a sophomore from China, all of whom landed on 4-over 220.
After opening with a 76, Paltrinieri posted a 1-under 71 in the second round before closing with a 1-over 73. Fanali was one of Lu’s closest pursuers heading into the final round after she registered a pair of 1-under 71s in the first two rounds and was in a tie for second place. Fanali closed with a 78.
Deng had a share of second place with Fanali going into the final round as she matched Fanali’s pair of 1-under 71s in the first two rounds before also cooling off in the final round with a 78.
After opening with a 75, Habgood matched par with a 72 in the second round before finishing up with a 1-over 73.
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