Oregon celebrates their Pac-12 title
(Oregon Athletics Photo)
BOULDER, CO (April 30, 2017) - Play finally resumed on Sunday at the Pac-12 Men's Golf Championship and it was No. 9 Oregon who emerged victorious. The title was the Ducks first outright conference title since 1959 after they shared the title as Northern Division winners in 1976 and 1977 when they shared the title with the Southern Division winner.
"The guys battled and withstood an amazing run by Stanford. The conditions were very difficult, but the guys handled everything beautifully," Oregon head coach Casey Martin said. "This is a dream come true for us. Winning in a conference like ours is so difficult, and it feels incredibly good right now."
Play at Boulder Country Club began on Friday but the 36-hole day was suspended just shot of completion due to rain and snow. Then on Saturday a shot was never struck due to a snow storm moving through the area.
However, with temperatures warming into the low 50's the majority of the snow melted allowing play to continue on Sunday with the tournament shortened from 72-holes to 54-holes. Early Sunday the second round was completed prompting a quick turnaround and the start of the final round a short time later.
Oregon, the defending NCAA champions, appear to be finding their grove at just the right time thanks in large part to the play of their ace in the hole, Wyndham Clark. The redshirt senior was impressive all weekend long as he battled various weather conditions to post a 4-under medalist winning number. Clark combined rounds of 69-68-69 and during the final round he birdied three-times and bogeyed twice. The birdies came on Nos. 2, 11 and 12. For Clark the it was his third individual victory of the season.
"This is the biggest win of my career and means so much to myself and the team that we won the team championship," explained Clark. "I couldn't be happier. We had to stay mentally tough to overcome the weather. We knew that everyone else had to play in the tough conditions too, so we just had to stay patient and focused."
The Ducks, who finished 15-over, have now won five-times this season as they finished three shots clear of runner-up, No. 7 Stanford at 18-over. Washington and No. 1 USC shared third at 32-over while UCLA placed fifth with a 38-over showing.
Oregon was led to the title by two other top-15 performers; Ryan Gronlund (T6; +4) and Norman Xiong (T14; +6).
Behind Clark in the medalist standings came Rico Hoey (USC) and Franklin Huang (Stanford) in second at 1-under, Maverick McNealy (Stanford) and Carl Yuan (Washington) were fourth at 3-over to round out the top-five.
-Oregon athletics contributed to this story
ABOUT THE Pac-12 Championship
72-hole men's collegiate championship of the
Pac-12 Conference with simultaneous team and
individual competitions. Unlike most college
tournaments, the best five scores of six players
account for the team score each day.
View Complete Tournament Information