Oregon State
NCAA Championship
Arvidson Leads Men's Golf At NCAA Championships
May 30, 2001 | Men's Golf
May 30, 2001
DURHAM, N.C. - The fact that all five Oregon State men's golfers are playing in their first NCAA Championship didn't translate into a jittery start, as some may have expected for Wednesday's opening round. The group of Daren Grieg and David Williams took advantage of their early 7 a.m. start and made the turn in 4-under to get their round off to a scorching start at the par-72, 7,088-yard Duke University Golf Club on Wednesday in Durham, North Carolina.
The Beavers shot 7-over 295 and stand tied with South Carolina for 11th place, in position to make the 15th-place cut after Thursday's second round. OSU is ahead of several nationally-ranked teams, including No. 1 Georgia, Pac-10 rival and No. 5 Arizona State, No. 9 North Carolina State, and No. 16 Oklahoma State. OSU also leads Pac-10 schools Stanford, UCLA and Washington.
The Beavers, paired with Oklahoma State and Virginia Tech for the first two rounds, are scheduled to tee off at noon on No. 10 for Thursday's second round, and need to be in the top 15 at the end of the day to advance to the final two rounds on Friday and Saturday. Of the 30 teams competing, 15 will go home after the second round.
"It's the first time for all five players in the national championship arena, and to be able to come out and get off to as good a start as they did, you have to be very proud of that from a coaching standpoint," OSU head coach Mike Ketcham said.
"You really can't ask for more than that," Ketcham said of his team's start. "To say last night that I knew we were going to turn at 4-under and be 5-under at one point on the front nine, obviously I would have been very happy with that, and I was today."
Arvidson, rising to the occasion as he has all year, gave the Beavers a steadying presence and the team's low score for the day with his 1-under 71 to tie for ninth.
Playing the number-one position, Arvidson, who was the last Beaver to tee off Wednesday morning, took advantage of the soft greens and open fairways on the front nine to post a 2-under 34. The senior birdied the par-4 fifth hole and dropped a 10 footer for birdie on the monstrously long 572-yard par-5 seventh. The only blemish on his scorecard came on the par-5 14th, where he took a six.
"I love seeing red numbers out there, I feel less pressure when we're under par than when we're over par," Arvidson said of his team's prominent position on the course leaderboards after the front nine. "I feel like we have it going already, and all we need to do is keep making birdies. It didn't happen that way today, but these are young guys and it's our first time in a national championship. We shouldn't be too disappointed with how we played today, but we did lose it a little bit on the backside and we're working on that."
As for tomorrow's round, focusing on the task at hand will be crucial.
"I'm just going to go out - and this sounds commercial - and take it one shot at a time," Arvidson said of the strategy for Thursday. "I'll try not to get too far ahead of myself and to put the ball in the right spots on the greens."
Michael Jurgensen also pounded the front nine for a 34, carding birdies on one of each of the par-three, -four and -fives. The tighter back nine came up and bit the sophomore, as it did most of the team, as Jurgensen bogied four of the final nine holes for a 40. His 2-over 74 puts him in a tie for 45th in the 156-player field.
Yarnes' 75 equaled that of teammate Williams, but Yarnes' score was perhaps more impressive considering his bogey-bogey start. The junior pulled his game together in time to birdie the par-3 fourth and collect another birdie on the par-5 ninth after a third bogey on seven. A tough day off the tee put the pressure on Yarnes to scramble and sink some putts to save par, and he came through in the short game.
Williams' 75 started off with an even-par 36 on the front nine, which included just one birdie and one bogey. With five consecutive pars after the turn, the freshman looked poised to turn in a low number, but the treacherously long stretch of holes 15-18 reclaimed three strokes with bogies on the 216-yard par-3 15th, 17th and 18th.
Grieg suffered a similar fate on the back nine after a solid 36 going out, as the redshirt freshman shot 42 coming home for a 78 on the day.
The weather cooperated for the field Wednesday, as temperatures reached into the upper 70's and clear skies were the norm. More of the same is the forecast for Thursday, but Thunderstorms loom on the horizon for Friday.
The Beavers shot a combined 11-over on the back nine, which was due in part to the tighter fairways and also to a bit of a dropoff in concentration.
"The back nine here is no doubt two or three shots harder than the front nine," Ketcham commented. "We have to do a better job of staying in the present over the last four holes of the round. That comes with inexperience and it comes with young guys. We just had a team meeting and addressed some issues on that particular topic, and I think if you see us in that situation in the next three days, we'll do a better job of getting it off the golf course.
"I felt like, turning at 4-under, if we could post a 288 or 289, that would have been very acceptable and a very good score," Ketcham added. "However, 295 is what it is. I don't think we shot ourselves in the foot by any means, but we need to go out tomorrow and find a way to shoot 288 or 289 and let the chips fall where they may."
Arizona leads the team competition after posting an 8-under 280, well ahead of second-place Georgia Tech at 289.
Kris Mekkelsen of Georgia Tech shot a morning round of 66, which was tied later by Arizona's Chris Nallen in the afternoon. Their 66's were one shot off the course record.
TEAM SCORES
1. Arizona 280
2. Georgia Tech 289
t3. Augusta State 292
t3. Toledo 292
5. East Tennessee State 293
t6. Clemson 294
t6. Wake Forest 294
t6. Coll.
of Charleston 294
t6. Oklahoma 294
t6. Virginia Tech 294
t11. South
Carolina 295
t11. Oregon State 295
t13. Mississippi 296
t13. Minnesota
296
t13. Florida
t13. Georgia 296
t17. Alabama-Birmingham
t17. Stanford
297
t19. NC State 298
t19. Arizona State 298
t19. SMU 298
t22. UCLA 299
t22. Pacific
24. Oklahoma State 300
25. Washington 301
26. Georgia
Southern 302
27. Houston 304
28. UC-Irvine 306
t29. Purdue 310
t29. Kent
State 310.
LOW INDIVIDUAL SCORES (par 72)
t1. Kris Mikkelsen, Georgia Tech, 33-33--66
t1. Chris Nallen, Arizona
33-33--66
3. Ricky Barnes, Arizona, 33-35--68
t4. Michael Webb, Augusta
State 36-33--69
t4. Nick Gilliam, Florida 34-35--69.
OREGON STATE SCORES
t9. Anthony Arvidson 34-37--71
t45. Michael Jurgensen 34-40--74
t66. David
Yarnes 37-38--75
t66. Daren Grieg
36-42--78.
