Oregon hosts Montana at Duck Invitational
3/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Golf
The University of Montana golf team will head to Junction City, Ore., for the 15th Annual Duck Invitational held next Monday and Tuesday, March 23-24. The 54-hole tournament, hosted by No. 29 Oregon Ducks, will be held at the Shadow Hills Country Club.
There will be 12 teams competing in the Invitational and two from the Big Sky Conference. The teams include: Oregon, San Francisco, UC Davis, Oregon State, Missouri, Washington State, Wisconsin, Illinois, UC Riverside, Portland, Portland State, and Montana.
After a practice round Sunday, the 12 teams will play two rounds Monday and a final round Tuesday on the par 72 course, with a shotgun start each day at 9:30 a.m. (MT).
Five members of Montana???s golf team will be traveling to Oregon this weekend: junior Teddi Roberts, sophomores Carissa Simmons, Rose Stepanek, and Kacey Valla, and freshman Ashli Helstrom.
???We were able to get outside this week and have qualifying rounds for the top five [players] but competing in our first two tournaments of the spring with only two days of outdoor practice has definitely been a challenge for the team mentally and physically,??? head coach Joanne Steele said.??
The Grizzlies opened their spring schedule at the Northern Arizona Red Rocks Invitational held Feb. 28 - March 1. They finished 10th of 18 teams with 656 (335-321) and third out of the five Big Sky teams present. Last weekend, March 14-16, Montana finished 11th of 18 teams at the Drake Invitational, shooting a 1024 (338-335-351).
Although the Grizzlies traveled to California for the Drake Invitational, they didn???t find the warm weather for which they were hoping. Steele commented, ???We experienced some pretty bad weather in Vallejo so we were unable to get any quality practice time outside.
???Our focus before Oregon will be good course management and maintaining a positive attitude. We definitely look forward to being outdoors on a more consistent basis and seeing improvement in our scores.?????????
Up next for Montana will be a trip to Wyoming for the Cowgirl Classic held Monday and Tuesday, April 6-7. This will be their final tournament of the spring before the Big Sky Conference Championship to be held in Chandler, Ariz., April 20-22.
