The Pac-12 Men's Golf championships were held this week at Trysting Tree (Bill Robinson) in Corvallis, OR. Pretty impressive field. Six of the top 13 D-1 College Teams, the #1 and #2 ranked amateurs in the world. The course played just over 7000 yards with two reachable par 4s and all par 5s reachable. The course is fairly wide open with the greens stimping at 12.5. Rain and wind on practice day softened the course slightly and brought down numerous branches. A letter from a 1992 contestant and ASU graduate was prominently displayed complimenting the layout.
Two tee start with playing in threes with a 4:35 pace of play. Friday morning tee times starting at 8am, with a 2nd round scheduled at start at 1 pm was enough of an incentive to keep play moving briskly. Only one group was seen behind pace. Saturday was very smooth with the last starters behind ahead of pace with one exception with a late par 3 tee backup. Sunday was great with all ahead of pace until the leaders (Oregon, California, UCLA) made the turn and the tightness of the competition took over. Still the final groups finished in 4:45.
Small fields and threesome play and a non-shotgun start are all the ingredients you need.
Oregon had a lead of 3-5 strokes over California most of the day, but minor mistakes and careless strokes late in the late holes took the lead down to one on the final hole and Cal sophomore Brandon Hagy nailed a 40 foot putt for birdie and playoff. Format were 5th and 6th men in the first group, 3/4 in 2nd, 1/2 in 3rd to play the 18th to settle a tie. Fifty minutes for one hole later, still tied. Off to 16 where Cal built a 1 stroke lead, then 2 through the first to groups. Oregon's Daniel Mirniecki laucnched a drive about 320, finally Hagy split the fairway at 345. A safe wedge to 20 feet, then a clinching birdie.
Remember the name, Brandon Hagy from Westwood Village, .