Oregon Golfers Head South for Fresno State Invite

Senior Therese Wenslow and the Duck golfers won the Baja Classic in their spring opener in early February. Photo: goducks.com

EUGENE - The No. 44-ranked University of Oregon women’s golf team looks forward to its second stop of the spring season at the Fresno State Invitational, Mon.-Tue., Feb. 26th-27th, at the Copper River Country Club in Fresno, Calif.

Oregon is one of five highly-ranked squads in the 16-team field along with No. 12 Denver, No. 41 UC Irvine, No. 47 New Mexico State and No. 48 Hawaii.

Other teams slated to play include Boise State, Colorado, Eastern Washington, Long Beach State, Nevada, Oregon State, Sacramento State, San Diego State, UC Davis, Kansas State and Santa Clara.

Looking ahead past next week, the Ducks head to one of the East Coast’s top tournaments, the Pinehurst Challenge, Mon.-Tue., March 5th-6th on Pinehurst #8 in Pinehurst, N.C.

Three weeks later, the Ducks host the Duck Invitational at Shadow Hills Country Club in nearby Junction City, Ore., Mon.-Tue., March 26th-27th.

In their last stop of the season, the Baja Classic, Mon.-Tue., Feb. 5th-6th, the then-No. 47-ranked Ducks held onto their Baja Classic first-day lead to win by four strokes (298-311-609).

UO edged No. 44 Louisville (second, 305-308-613), and No. 37 Birmingham Southern (313-307-620) and Colorado (298-322-620) tied for third place.

On the individual side, senior Kim McCready also proved victorious on the Bajamar Resort course by a five-stroke margin (75-70, 3-over 145).

The Placerville, Calif., native has led UO in six of her last nine rounds, including a school record 4-under 67 to cap the fall in the Stanford Intercollegiate last October.

Other UO players that played in Baja included freshmen Felicia Eastick (15th, 76-78-154) and Kate Hildahl (29th, 77-80-157), sophomore Cathryn Bristow (35th, 81-78-159) and junior Victoria Wenslow (35th, 75-84-159).

Three other players saw duty as individual entries – senior Therese Wenslow (41st, 80-81-161), sophomore Blair Ressler (56th, 81-83-164) and freshman Cathleen Ward (89th, 89-90-179).

In this week’s Golfweek national rankings, McCready ranks 102nd nationally with her rating of 74.20 – an improvement of 67 positions from her fall-end ranking (169th).

Sophomore Cathryn Bristow is also ranked in the top 200 players in the country (170th, 75.16).

Last year, the Ducks made their first appearance in the Fresno State University-hosted event, and placed eighth (302-305-607).

Junior Victoria Wenslow led UO both days (sixth-tie, 74-74-146), and other Duck players included Erin Andrews (47th-tie, 77-76-153), Bristow (53rd, 77-77-154), Michelle Timpani (63rd, 76-81-157) and Therese Wenslow (75th, 82-78-160).

Overall in the 19-team field in ‘06, UC Irvine held onto its first day lead to win (285-286-571) by nine strokes over Long Beach State (second, 580), New Mexico State (third, 596) and San Jose State (fourth, 597).

Individually, first day leader Selanee’ Henderson of UC Irvine triumphed by six strokes with her seven-under 137 (67-70).

Oregon head coach Shannon Rouillard is in her seventh season at the helm and guided Oregon to 11th place in the 2000 NCAA Championships, and top-12 West Regional finishes in 2001 (ninth), ‘04 (eighth-tie) and ’05 (10th).

As a Duck player, she was a 1995 Pac-10 honorable mention all-conference honoree for UO and in 1993 took seventh and 29th in the Pac-10 and NCAA Championships, respectively.

After her collegiate career, she was a 1999 Women's U.S. Open qualifier after she claimed medalist honors in the Lake Merced (Calif.) qualifying tournament.

Earlier in the fall, Rouillard also made an appearance as a player in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur qualifier, held at Indian Summer Golf and Country Club in Olympia, Wash.

The seventh-year Duck coach shot an 82, and won a playoff to finish fourth overall, and is the first alternate for the national championship, set for next week at the Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss., Sat.-Thu., Oct. 21st-26th.

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