emerald sports
Golf Guide
Above, the par three fifth hole at beautiful Eugene Country Club. Lindy Miller (inset) will lead favored Oklahoma State, the number one team in America.
Golfers in Eugene for NCAAs
The rolling fairways and un
dulating greens of Eugene Coun
try Club will serve as the sight of
this year’s NCAA Golf Champion
ship that will run next Thursday
through Saturday, deciding both
the team and individual champs
for 1978.
Although golf may not seem as
glamorous or exciting as the track
championship in Eugene, ten
years from now it will be easier to
name ten athletes that competed
in the golf finals than ten that ap
peared at Hayward Field.
Most professional golfers are
veterans of the NCAA tourna
merit.
Among the esteemed alumni
from schools competing in the
tournament this weekend are the
following:
Arnold Palmer, Lanny Wadkins
(Wake Forest)
Jack Nicklaus, Tom Wieskopf
(Ohio State)
Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite (Texas)
Johnny Miller (Brigham Young)
Tom Watson (Stanford)
John Mahaffey (Houston)
Among these, Nicklaus, Cren
shaw and Mahaffey all became
NCAA individual champions be
fore becoming successful profes
sionals.
The course itself is thought to
be one of the advantages the
Oregon team has. The Country
Club course is a stem test of golf
that rewards a good shot and
penalizes a bad one. With a
course rating of 73.0 from the blue
championship tees and the
course stretched to as much as
7,000 yards, head groundskeeper
Bill Norman believes the course
will challenge even the best of
America's young golfers.
Water comeo into play, or bor
ders about seven holes, and all
greens are well bunkered. The
greens are fast and all are undulat
ing, which means there will be few
level putts for competitors next
weekend.
The two biggest factors with the
course, however, will be the three
to four inch rough to catch errant
shots, and the expected difficult
pin placements to be determined
each day by the NCAA officials.
There will be no radical
changes outside the extra-long
rough. The course, lush from an
abundance of rain, should be a
factor because the Southern
schools are used to a different
type of course where the ball can
be hit low. The advantage of
Eugene goes to the players who
hit the ball high.
Next weekend, after NCAA
track fever has melted away,
come out to Eugene Country Club
and watch the Duck’s go after the
top spot in college golf. Even for
those who are not golfers, this
tournament, played on a beautiful
and difficult golf course, will treat
you to a glimpse at the U.S. Open
and Master’s champs of the fu
ture.
* It’s an opportunity Oregon, or
you, may never get again.