BATON ROUGE, La. – Greyson Leach fired a 1-under 71 in the opening round of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional on Monday, helping place Oregon firmly in the hunt for a qualifying spot to the NCAA Championships.
Leach was one of just 14 individuals to go under par in the opening round on Monday and finished the day in a tie for ninth. The junior was the top finisher for the fourth-seeded Ducks who will enter the second round tied for sixth and one stroke back of the top five after combining to shoot a 4-over 292.
“Today was a difficult day,” head coach Casey Martin said. “We had some bad stretches but fortunately we finished well and are in the thick of it. I’m expecting us to improve each day as we adjust to the grasses and conditions.”
Aiden Krafft and Nate Stember each finished the day 1 over par and find themselves among the top 25 in a tie for 22nd. Owen Avrit birdied two of his final five holes en route to a 3-over finish, securing the final counting score of the round for Oregon.
How It Happened
The Ducks began the day on the No. 10 tee box, and after a par to open the day Leach recorded a bogey on hole 11 that put him above the line early on. The Palos Verdes, Calif., native responded to the adversity by going bogey-free with two birdies across his next 14 holes to steadily climb up the leaderboard. A bogey on his penultimate hole threatened to slow his progress, but Leach sank a birdie on hole nine to cap a stellar first-round performance.
Krafft played an up-and-down round as the sophomore shot two birdies in his first nine holes but found himself 3 over par at the turn. After another bogey on No. 1, Krafft leveled up his play to go bogey-free across his final eight holes, including three straight birdies on 5-7 that powered his 1-over finish.
Stember played steady golf throughout the day as he matched Leach with a team-high 13 pars. After shooting even par through his first nine, Stember encountered trouble on holes two and five and carded a pair of bogeys. The senior reclaimed some momentum in the late stages as he birdied the sixth before making three straight pars to close out the round and match Krafft with a 1-over performance.
Avrit played a clean round for the majority of the day, but bogeys on four straight holes in the middle of his outing offered a challenge. The senior bounced back with consecutive birdies on holes five and six and at the end of the day carded 4 over to tie for 37th.
Duck Scorecard
NCAA Regionals
University Club – Par 72
T6. Oregon 292 (+4)
T9. Greyson Leach 71 (-1)
T22. Nate Stember 73 (+1)
T22. Owen Avrit 73 (+1)
T37. Aiden Krafft 75 (+3)
T44. Eric Doyle 76 (+4)
Notables
Oregon led the field in par-3 scoring, shooting an average of 3.05 … The Ducks combined to make 56 pars, tied for the third most in the field … Krafft tied for fourth individually in par-5 scoring with a 4.25 average.
Next Up
The Ducks tee off the second round of the NCAA Regional tomorrow morning at 7:25 a.m. PT.
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