Starting the season with back-to-back impressive finishes, the No. 25 Oregon men’s golf team looks like the next athletic program ready to step into the national spotlight.
The Ducks didn’t take long making their impression on perennial Pac-12 powers UCLA and USC. The Ducks tied with the Bruins at the season-opening Husky Invitational, then beat the Trojans in a playoff at the Itani Quality Homes Collegiate in Pullman, Washington last weekend.
Following those performances, Thomas Lim would cap the fast start’s entirety, leading the Ducks to a win at the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational, making it only the second time in school history that Oregon has won its first three tournaments.
“Showing we can compete with teams like UCLA and USC is huge for us,” sophomore Thomas Lim said. “What I think is the most promising thing is that in the (first) two events that we’ve played, we actually didn’t play very well, so we could have done a lot better than what we actually did.”
Lim’s realization might take some by surprise, as early season success is something relatively foreign to Oregon golf. In years past, being anywhere close to top of the leaderboard in an early season tournament with similar levels of competition just didn’t happen.
“It’s different from my first years when we kind of struggled as a team for a majority of our tournaments,” junior Brandon McIver said. “It’s nice to come out confident that we can do really well and proving to everyone that we have the potential and the talent along with the coaching staff to take this season and make the most of it.”
Much of Oregon’s confidence comes from a group of returnees: McIver, who participated in the U.S. Open this past summer, Lim, a 2014 All-West Region team member, Zach Foushee, who finished last season alongside some of the best amateur golfers in the world and Jonathan Woo, a Singapore National Team member.
They also added two talented freshmen: Hurly Long, a Germany Junior National Team member, and Aaron Wise.
“Our freshmen are pretty mature; they’re accomplished players,” Head Coach Casey Martin said. “They can handle the pressure and they’re excited to be part of this squad and try to do big things.”
Those freshmen will have to buy into the mentality that wants Oregon golf on the same level as other successful teams on campus.
The teams that garner all the publicity.
“I think that we’re kind of tired to see football and softball up there,” Lim said. “Obviously we love for them to be number one, but we’re tired of being chopped liver over here ranked 30th in the nation. We want to be in the top five as well. That’s the goal and that’s the drive seeing football and softball and volleyball. We want to get up there and we just want to make the best name for ourselves at the school.”
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