By: Rob Moseley
EUGENE, Ore. — Greyson Leach shot 1-under 70 and Greg Solhaug carded an even-par 71 on Tuesday in the final round of the Oregon Duck Invitational, with each finishing tied for eighth individually and helping the host UO men’s golf squad finish second as a team at Eugene Country Club.The No. 24 Ducks entered the day tied for first in the team race with No. 21 Illinois, which went 6 under as a team on Tuesday to finish the two-day, three-round event at 2-under 850. Oregon finished at 5-over 857 after shooting 1 over as a group in the final round.“We got it in first of all; with the weather it’s dicey around here, so we got it in,” UO coach Casey Martin said. “A great team won; Illinois is always really strong and it was fun to battle them. We’ve just got to keep getting better. We obviously did well,but there’s a next level that we have shown that we can do, and we are not doing it right now. So we’ve got to get to that. That will be our goal here this spring, to keep fighting until we can kind of peak and get back to playing like this crew is capable.”Leach and Solhaug each finished 1 over individually, seven strokes back of medalist Jackson Buchanan of Illinois. Nate Stember was 2 over to tie for 13th, Owen Avrit finished tied for 24th at 5 over and Aiden Krafft was 6 over to tie for 31st. Among Oregon’s team members who competed as individuals in the tournament, Thomas Jenkins Jr. used a birdie-eagle sequence Tuesday at No. 5 and No. 6 on the way to a round of 2 over, and a tie for 24th in the event at 5 over.“There were definitely good things, but we stall out — we kind of do some things that we haven’t done in the past,” Martin said. “Guys aren’t hitting it great and there are just kind of little things that we need to clean up. But the guys, they’re fighting. I mean, it was a grind. It was an absolute war out there with the weather and everything. So we’ll sleep up and do it again real soon.”The Ducks will be back in action beginning Thursday, for the first of three rounds at The Goodwin in San Francisco.How It HappenedPlaying a shotgun start Tuesday, Solhaug began his round at No. 1 and played each side at even par, with one birdie and one bogey on the front and one of each on the back. Leach began his day at No. 2 and was 1 over after the ninth hole, but birdies at No. 16 and on his final hole of the day, No. 1, got him under par for the round.Stember also began his round at No. 1, and he was 2 over at the turn. Birdies at No. 13 and No. 17 got him back even, before a final-hole bogey. Avrit battled through his round, carding four birdies, three bogeys and a double, and Krafft had three birdies with five bogeys.Among the individuals, Eric Doyle opened his round with a birdie on his opening hole, No. 17, and he was 2 under through four holes. Trouble just before and just after the turn had him 4 over down the stretch, but he birdied two of his final three holes to finish even for the day. Jenkins was 3 over through 10 holes before a birdie at the par-3 fifth hole followed by an eagle on the par-5 sixth got him back to even. He finished the day 2 over.Duck ScorecardThe Duck InvitationalEugene Country Club – Par 712. Oregon 283-289-285—857 (+5)T8. Greg Solhaug 71-72-71—214 (+1)T8. Greyson Leach 71-73-70—214 (+1)T13. Nate Stember 70-73-72—215 (+2)T24. Owen Avrit 75-71-72—218 (+5)T31. Aiden Krafft 71-75-73—219 (+6)IndividualsT24. Thomas Jenkins Jr. 73-72-73—218 (+5)T43. Hugh Adams 74-71-76—221 (+8)T43. Eric Doyle 76-74-71—221 (+8)T66. Jay Gould-Healy 78-77-72—227 (+14)T71. Kyreece Romero 78-71-79—228 (+15)T83. Will Stribling 77-78-77—232 (+19)T83. Gabriel Hari 77-81-74—232 (+19) Next UpThe Ducks will be in action Thursday through Saturday at The Goodwin Intercollegiate, hosted by Stanford at TPC Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco.
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