The Arizona men’s golf team placed 10th at the Pac-12 Previews in North Plains, Ore.
The Wildcats completed the two-day, three-round tournament with a score of 873 (nine over par), 38 shots behind the tournament champion, No. 1 University of California Berkeley.
“We aren’t satisfied with our finish,” the men’s golf head coach Jim Anderson said. “We play in arguably the hardest conference, which means we have to play our best every time we compete, but we’ve made improvements.”
The tournament was between all the Pac-12 schools, and though the results from the event don’t factor into rankings or national championship contentions, it gave the Wildcats a good idea of where it currently stands in the conference.
“It’s a great event for us,” Anderson said.” We played against some strong opponents and it allowed us to measure up against them.”
Junior Erik Oja led the Wildcats through the first round, but senior Trent Redfern finished the three-rounds with the strongest performance for the Wildcats. Redfern birdied four holes and eagled one hole in the final round. He tied for 20th with a score of 214 (two under par) over the three-rounds. Oja shot a 218 (two over par) and finished tied for 26th. Both Redfern and Oja finished ahead of Brian Jung, the No. 2 ranked player in the nation from Oregon State.
Arizona sophomores Alex McMahon, Tucker Wadkins and freshman Dylan Healey shot a 224, 225 and 233 respectively. The three placed tied 41st, tied 45th and 58th.
“Trent is a fighter,” Anderson said. “He has worked hard and deserved the end result. The rest of the team showed signs of life. We are still searching for our top 6 players and our best lineup though.”
Currently the Pac-12 is home to three schools in the top five and the Wildcats are ranked 66. With the season just starting, Anderson said he isn’t worried and is optimistic about the future.
“We want to have success early but we are still figuring things out,” Anderson said. “As long as we are improving every week it’s going good. It’s very early and we’re looking up, there’s lots of opportunity to improve.”
