Beavers Look To Tee Off On Tough Field At Western Intercollegiate
April 1, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - -
UP NEXT: OSU heads to the Western Intercollegiate in Santa Cruz, Calif. on Apr. 3-4.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY: The Western Intercollegiate tournament has seen a wealth of well-known talent over its 54-year history. Past winners include Ken Venturi, Johnny Miller, Peter Jacobsen, Mark O'Meara, Bobby Clampett, and Duffy Waldorf. 1999 medalist Joel Kribel of Stanford has graduated, but 1998 champ Naoya Takemoto of U.C. Santa Barbara is expected to compete. Play begins with 36 holes on Monday at 8:00 a.m., followed by the final 18 holes on Tuesday at the par 70, 6,445 yard Pasatiempo Golf Course.
AND NOW, YOUR STARTING FIVE: John Lepak (So., La Habra Heights, Calif.) Tied for eighth at Duck Inv. Mar. 21 ... finished second at Southwestern Invitational Feb. 28-29 ... Tied season-low with second-round 68 in SW ... Leads team with 24 rounds and 72.7 average for the year ... had lowered his shot total in each of his last four tournaments before Duck: 226, 225, 217, 212, then 215.
Tim Mickelson (Sr., San Diego, Calif.) Shot 218 at Duck, tied for 15th playing unattached ... shot 69 twice this year ... finished fourth at Taylor Made Intercollegiate in February ... after 18 rounds is averaging 74.2.
Anthony Arvidson (Jr., Beaverton, Ore.) Won the Duck Inv. Mar. 21 for the second time in his career ... has three career wins, two this year along with a second place ... averaging 73.6 over 21 rounds.
Dustin Wayne (Sr., Alameda, Calif.) Shot 220 at the Duck in his first tournament since the fall, tying for 22nd ... shooting 74.3 after 12 rounds.
Todd Deacon (So., Scottsdale, Ariz.) Tied for 26 playing unattached at Duck Invitaional Mar. 20-21 ... best finish of the year was seventh at Pilot Spring Invitational ... Averaging 74.9 strokes through 8.5 rounds with a low of 72.
THE FIELD: The Beavers, ranked 30th in this week's Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings poll, run into some stiff competition this week, as six other top-30 teams head the 20-team field in Santa Cruz, Calif. In addition to host team San Jose State, Brigham Young (No. 5), Fresno State (10), Stanford (14), defending tournament champion Washington (16), USC (26), Kansas (27), California, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Hawaii, Long Beach State, Nevada, Oregon, Pacific, Pepperdine, San Diego State, and Santa Clara will battle for the team title.
THE BEAVERS IN OTHER POLLS: In the GolfStat rankings, Oregon State was 22nd as of Mar. 20. The Beavers moved up to the 29th spot in the MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings in the Mar. 29th poll. Individually, Sophomore John Lepak leads the way for the Beavers. Lepak is 69th in Golfweek, 78th in GolfStat and 57th in MasterCard, where he had risen as high as 46th two weeks ago. After winning the Duck Invitational Mar. 21, Anthony Arvidson is ranked 139th by Golfweek, 98th in MasterCard, and 181st in GolfStat.
HEAD COACH MIKE KETCHAM ON THE COURSE AND TOURNAMENT: "It's a great golf course. It's a golf course that Alister MacKenzie built, who also built Augusta National. His golf courses are a lot of fun to play. As a matter of fact, his signature hole, out of all his golf courses, actually sits on the number 16 hole here at Pasatiempo Golf Club. It's a golf course that you'd better bring your 'A' game to, and I think it fits our golf team real well. It's a course that you'll use almost every club in your bag. The yardage is only about 6,400, but it plays anywhere from about 6,800 to 7,000 yards, the reason being there's a lot of holes that you have to lay back with an iron or a three-wood, which will stretch out the golf course a little bit.
We're excited. I think the important thing with this team is that I've seen improvement every week from tournament to tournament, and we want to continue that through this tournament, and for our stretch drive for Pac-10s, Regionals, and Nationals.That's what we're most concerned with right now is the improvement.
This is a golf course that you really want to be careful with ball placement with your second shot into par-4s and third shots into par-5s. The greens are real undulated and extremely fast. Positioning yourself into the greens will be really important in the overall success at this golf tournament. It's not really anything that you can focus on in practice, it's something we will really pay close attention to when we get down there in our practice round on Sunday. We'll get a feel for the golf course and where to be and where not to be. That will go into our course management deal on Sunday."
ARVIDSON WINS AGAIN, LEPAK STAYS HOT: Junior Anthony Arvidson laid claim to his second individual title of the season when he won the Oregon Duck Invitational in Eugene on Mar. 21. Arvidson birdied the first playoff hole when he reached the par-5 18th in two and followed with a two-putt for the win over San Jose State's Lucas Horrobin. Arvidson fired a three-round total of 212, including a 69 in the second round. OSU took third, finishing behind then-No. 20 Washington and host Oregon. Sophomore John Lepak continued his hot play this year, tying for eighth place with a 215. Lepak has played in all eight tournaments for the Beavers this year while finishing 21st or better in seven of those eight. He leads the squad with a 72.7 stroke average.
KETCHAM ON LEPAK AND ARVIDSON: "John and Anthony have been real consistent. Both of them came with great credentials when they came to Oregon State. They're just starting to maxmize their talent and I think both of them still have a lot of room for improvement, and I think they'll continue to get better. Both of them are kind of following in the footpaths of each other. They didn't have the Freshman of the Year Award Anthony's freshman year, they didn't do that until last year and John was the first one to receive it. Looking back on it, Anthony would have been right there in line to get that award after his freshman year. Anthony was named All-Pac-10 after his freshman year, and so was John. Both of them are doing nice things for our program. The nice thing is they both lead by example on and off the golf course and they're great role models for the rest of our golf team."
GEIBERGER AND DAHM OUT: Seniors Bryan Geiberger and Eric Dahm will be sidelined for about a week and are on the injured list.
LEADER OF THE PAC: Paul Casey of Arizona State moved up to claim the top spot in the individual rankings in this week's Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings. ASU teammate Matt Jones is 22nd. In the team rankings, ASU is the highest-rated Pac-10 school, at No. 6. The rest of the Pac-10 ranks as follows: Arizona (12), Stanford (14), Washington (16), UCLA (24), USC (26), Oregon State (30), Oregon (38), California (47), and Washington State (107).
HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES!: A look at individual scoring averages, with rounds played in parentheses, best finish, and low round for the year so far:
Anthony Arvidson, 73.6 (21), 1st (Northwest Classic, Duck Invitational), 68 David Crowell (No longer on team), 75.5 (6), T21st (Pacific Invitational), 72 Eric Dahm, 74.0 (17.5), T7th (Pilot Spring Invitational), 70 Todd Deacon, 74.9 (8.5), T7th (Pilot Spring Invitational), 72 Sean Deacon, has not played. Chance Holmes, 76.0 (11.5), 20th (Pilot Spring Invitational), 71 (twice) Kyle Hudson, 74.4 (20.5), 1st (Pilot Spring Invitational), 66 Bryan Geiberger, 74.2 (18), T11th (Pepperdine Inv.), 69 Daren Grieg, has not played. Brodie Jordan (no longer on team), 74.6 (3), T25th (NW Classic), 72 John Lepak, 72.7 (24), 2nd (Southwestern), 68 (three times) Tim Mickelson, 74.2 (18), T4th (Taylor Made), 69 David Stypula, has not played. Dustin Wayne, 74.3 (12), T10th (NW Classic), 70
