The Oregon State Men's Golf team finished competition at the Pac-10 Tournament on Wednesday, finishing fifth, its best finish since 2002 when it finished third.
The tournament was hosted by Washington this year. The Huskies won the tournament at 16-under and 18 strokes ahead of second place Oregon. Washington's Darren Wallace took home the individual trophy after finishing 11-under.
Some individual notes, from the official release:
Paul Peterson came into the day at even par but put together his best round of the tournament, a 3-under 69, to finish 3-under and tied for sixth overall. Peterson's sixth place finish is the best finish by any Oregon State golfer at the Pac-10 Championship since Cameron MacKenzie also finished tied for sixth in 2003.
"Paul (Peterson) had another great tournament," Watts said. "He's played solid all year; he has not finished outside of the top-25 in any tournament that he's played. He's finally figured it out when it comes to staying patient and playing to his strengths. Because of his efforts this week we were able to finish fifth."
Peterson was even through 13 holes in the final round and it was his three birdies in his final five holes including the 17th and 18th holes that cemented the fifth place finish for the Beavers.
Peterson finished ahead of 10 golfers who are ranked above him and this marked his fifth top-10 finish of the season.
Freshman Morten Madsen finished his first Pac-10 Championship tied for 16th at 3-over with a score of 291 (73-72-72-74). He started the final round at 1-over and quickly dropped to 2-under through seven holes but ran into some trouble with a double bogey on the par-3 eighth bringing him back to even par. He then went 3-over on the back nine to finish 3-over.
Junior Diego Velasquez shot a 1-over 73 in the final round to finish 9-over and tied for 35 with a score of 297 (79-74-71-73).
Senior co-captain Alex Williams made only two birdies Wednesday and finished 4-over, 10-over for the tournament, with a score of 298 (70-74-78-76) which tied him for 38th.
Redshirt freshman Alex Moore finished tied for 44th while freshman Jonnie Motomochi finished 54th.
The strong performance gives the Beavers some serious post-season potential:
The Beavers now await the NCAA West Regional selection which comes out Monday, May 4. There are six regional sites and they now await their post season destination.
"Finishing fifth will give us another opportunity to compete in the post season. At the beginning of each year it is every player and coaches goal to play in the post season and as a coach you want to give your players an opportunity to compete at the national championships," Watts said. "We look forward to Monday's announcement and we'll get back to practice and be ready to compete in two weeks."
The Beavers are looking to compete at the regional level for the third straight year.
--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)