Men's Golf at Pac-10 Championships Next Week
CORVALLIS — The Oregon State men’s golf team is playing its best golf of the season heading into the 2007 Pacific-10 Conference Championships, which is being hosted by Oregon at the Eugene Country Club next Monday through Wednesday (April 23-25). The Beavers have finished in the top four in each of the last three tournaments.
The most notable accomplishment during the run was a second-place finish at the Oregon Duck Invitational on March 26-27. That was also held at the Eugene Country Club and the tournament featured all of the Pac-10 squads.
"I think that with the finishes that our team has had in the last three tournaments, there’s a lot of momentum there," said sixth-year head coach . "We’re playing with a lot of confidence. Our guys believe they can win this. We’ve been working extremely hard. Our guys have a lot of experience on this course so it’s almost like a home event. We know there are about five or six holes where you need to get your par and get out of there. If we continue to play consistent golf, we’ll be in good shape."
At the Oregon Duck Invitational, the Beavers defeated six of the Pac-10 teams ahead of them in the national rankings. They’ll be looking to pull a similar upset next week. Oregon State is ranked seventh in the conference and #52 nationally by Golfstat. The other Pac-10 squads, and their rankings, are: #2 Stanford, #4 UCLA, #10 USC, #17 Arizona State, #25 Arizona, #36 Washington, #58 Oregon, #61 California and #100 Washington State.
The Pac-10 Championships is scored differently than all regular-season events. Six players will take part with the top five scores from each round being counted. Four Beavers definitely in the lineup are junior (Langley, B.C./Langley Secondary/UTEP), sophomore (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview HS), freshman (Bogota, Colombia/Gimnasio Los Caobos) and junior (Portland, Ore./David Douglas HS). Three golfers competing for the final two spots are freshman (Salem, Ore./Sprague HS), senior (Williams Lake, B.C./Columneetza Secondary) and junior (Troutdale, Ore./Reynolds HS).
"Our team is very deep this year," Watts said. "It’s probably as deep as it’s been in a long time. If we have a guy in there who hasn’t played a lot in the spring, that doesn’t concern me at all. I have faith in our guys regardless of who it is. It won’t be a factor as it might have been in the past."
Eugene Country Club is a par-72, 6,854-yard course. Admission is free for the event. Two rounds will be played on Monday with single rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Beavers placed eighth at the 2006 Pac-10 Championships with a lineup that included Gillis, Johnson and Oliver. The last time OSU finished in the top half of the standings was in 2001-02, when the Beavers placed third in Watts’ first year. Eugene Country Club last hosted the event in 1997, and the Beavers placed eighth.
NCAA Regional berths will be announced on Monday, May 7. Watts believes that the Beavers are in good shape to qualify for the first time since 2003.
The full press release is attached in PDF format.
