Oregon finished eighth this weekend at the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Ducks totaled 887 strokes in the tournament, 25 off the lead.
Oregon was the lone west coast team in a tournament that consisted of numerous schools from the ACC and SEC. Duke, last year’s national champions, took home the victory with a score of 862.
Nine of the eighteen teams that played this weekend ranked in the top 20 at the NCAA Championships last season. The Ducks managed to finish ahead of all but three of them.
Sophomore Cathleen Santoso led the Ducks by finishing eleventh and shooting one over par. She finished eight strokes behind tournament champion Lauren Diaz-YI (-7) from Virginia, but just four strokes from second place finisher Kendall Martindale (-3) of Vanderbilt. Freshman Kelsey Ulep, who finished sixteen strokes over par at the Windy City Collegiate Championship earlier in the week, improved her score by eleven. Caroline Inglis (+9), Cassy Isagawa (+9), and Cali Hipp (+17) played in the tournament as well.
Oregon took a while to wake up Friday morning, starting out at five over par in the first three holes. However, the Ducks would improve to finish three over par for the round, just four strokes off the lead. They tied for the most birdies by any team in the round with eighteen. The Ducks finished the round with 291, strokes which was their best score of the season thus far.
Oregon had its worst round on Saturday by recording 300 strokes. Nonetheless, last season’s lowest scorer, Cassy Isagawa, enjoyed her best round of the fall season at one-over par. Ulep followed close behind with a two-over. A weather delay forced Santoso, who shot four-over par, to mark her ball on 18 and finish the following morning prior to the final round. She was two-over prior to the final hole, where she recorded a double-bogey. The rest of the team was able to finish its rounds.
Shooting one-under par, Santoso had the best round of any Duck on the tournament’s final day. The sophomore recorded three birdies and no bogeys on the front nine. Ulep also improved upon her score from the previous round with a one-over par.
The fist Golfstat.com rankings will be released this Thursday. Oregon travels to Stanford this Friday to compete in the Stanford Collegiate this weekend.
Follow Jack Heffernan on Twitter @JHeffy13