Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, May 28,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet *
Champion's League Final:
AC Milan vs. Juventus
11:30 a.m., ESPN2
Danielle Hickey Emerald
Chris Carnahan holds the second-best score on the team after one round at the NCAA Championships in Oklahoma.
The Oregon senior said he's excited about this year's finale, which runs through Friday at Oklahoma State's home course.
Iranian Carnahan
Senior Chris Carnahan reflects
on his five years as a Duck
as the team competes
in the NCAA Championships
Golf
Scott Archer
Freelance Sports Reporter
Tuesday, Chris Carnahan played in the
biggest golf tournament he has ever been
in, “the granddaddy of them all,” the
NCAA Championships. And Carnahan
has been in a lot of tournaments.
“Chris and I were counting the other day,
and we think Chris has been in more tour
naments than any other Oregon golfer,
ever,” said senior Oregon co-captain John
Ellis, who shares the captain duties with
Carnahan. “It’s something like 74 straight.
That says a lot about him and his golf game.
It’s a pretty nice accomplishment.”
Carnahan acts like he’s seen it all be
fore. He hasn’t. He didn’t know the enor
mity of the tournament, which runs
through Friday, until he took his first
swing at the 7,301-yard, par-72 Karsten
Creek Golf Course in Stillwater, Okla.
Carnahan now sits on the doorstep of
one of his biggest dreams since he first be
gan playing golf at the age of six. Before
heading to Oklahoma, he reflected on
what it meant to be heading into his last
tournament ever as a Duck — and his
biggest tournament yet.
“All the hard work for four years, it all
paid off in the end,” Carnahan said. “It’s
pretty much a dream come true for Ellis
and myself. We wake up everyday think
ing about Stillwater.”
One of Oregon’s most experienced
players isn’t having the best individual
season he has ever had as a Duck; that
was last year. This year is different. For
the first time in four years, No. 26 seeded
Oregon is back in the NCAA Champi
onships, competing against the 29 best
teams in the nation, and Carnahan
wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I shot better numbers last year,” Car
nahan said. “I had way more success last
year, but I knew what it took to get to
those scores this year. I knew if I took a
lot of risks, it would kill our team.”
But this season is bigger than Carnahan
or any individual success he could have.
“Team comes first,” Carnahan said. “A
team represents your school, your school
represents your community, your commu
nity represents your state, then you go back
and individually you represent that team.
This is a way better year for the team, and
that’s all that matters, really. Ask anybody if
they’d rather go to nationals as an individ
ual or as a team. They will say ‘team.’”
Carnahan is a popular man these days. Af
ter all, it was his final round 2-under par 70
that helped launch his team into the NCAA
Championships. Reporters from all over the
state have crawled out of the woodwork to
get a piece of Oregon’s most tenured gplfer.
But Carnahan doesn’t bask in the light.
He’d rather share it with his teammates,
something he is used to doing with the four
guys he will be competing with this week.
“(Mike) Sica’s hole-in-one was unreal,”
Carnahan said, referring to his team
mate’s ace at last week’s NCAA Regionals.
“I don’t know how the hell he made it. He
didn’t hit it good, ‘cause the pin was
tucked in the back and the green was
sloped. It was unreal.”
Unreal as it may be, it was with one
Turn to Carnahan, page 10
Ducks trip on No. 7,
sit in last at NCAAs
Three Oregon golfers triple
bogey one hole, and Oregon
can't recover on the first day
of the NCAA Championships
Golf
Scott Archer
Freelance Sports Reporter
On the biggest stage this year’s ver
sion of the Oregon men’s golf team has
ever played, things couldn’t have been
any less indicative of how the season
has progressed.
Coming off a top-10 finish two weeks
ago in the NCAA Regional, which cata
pulted the Ducks into the NCAA Cham
pionships in Stillwater, Okla., this
week, Oregon looked like a team ready
to surprise a lot of people. And the team
did exactly that on Tuesday in the
opening round of the 2003 NCAA Golf
Championships — just not in a way
people would have imagined. Oregon
finished the day tied for last place in
the 30-team field.
The 7,301-yard, par-72 Karsten
Creek Golf Course wreaked havoc on
even the most celebrated Duck players
Tuesday as senior John Ellis shot proba
bly his worst round of golf in his Oregon
career. Ellis had 10 holes of bogeys or
* Turn to Golf, page 12
I’ll take the NBA Jam in the Age of Enlightenment, please
Lots has changed since the wild, wacky,
wonderful 1980s.
Vanilla Ice is now a mo
tocross star. “Goonies” fa
vorite Corey Feldman has
been relegated to lame re
ality television shows on
the WB. Michael Jack
son’s nose is now actually
caving in on itself.
But no change has
been more dramatic than
the change in sports video
games — and this is a
change for the better.
Where once we had two
plays to choose from,
Hockaday
Two minutes for
crosschecking
gamers now have playbooks to make Mike Holm
gren cringe. Where once we watched colored dots
move across the screen, graphics are now realis
tic enough to make roommates stop and say, “I
didn’t know there was a game today... ”
And for this, those of us who enjoy making
our athletes dance to our touch are higher
than a helium balloon.
The evolution of the sports video game is sort of
like the evolution of time. The Dark Ages of the
Nintendo gave us “Tecmo Bowl,” “Blades of Steel”
and “Baseball Stars.” These games have kitsch
value, for sure. But seriously, how excited can you
get when it’s third-and-eight, and you have two
run plays and a pass play to choose from?
Then there was the mid-’90s Renaissance,
which gave us classics like “NBA Jam,” “NHL 95”
and the start of the “Madden” franchise. These
were sports. Now you could lob a deep bomb from
Young to Rice, throw it down with Clyde Drexler
or make Wayne Gretzky’s head bleed.
That last one, in reference to “NHL 95,”
spawned the most classic movie line ever
about a video game. Of course, it’s from one of
the most quotable movies out there,
“Swingers.”
Trent: “You know what, Mikey? You can
make their heads bleed on this one.”
Mikey: “Make somebody’s head bleed.”
Sue (wearing Gretzky jersey): “No, we’re in
the playoffs.”
Trent: “I’m gonna make Wayne Gretzky’s
head bleed for Superfan No. 99 over here.
(Meanwhile, Sue gets up to pay the Pink Dot
guy while Trent keeps playing and checks
Gretzky.) Check it out Mikey, his head’s bleed
ing! Little Wayne’s legs are shaking!”
Now, the evolution has almost reached its
peak. With XBox and Playstation 2, we get
Autzen Stadium duplicated down to the con
cession stands in “NCAA Football,” Tiger
Woods sniping after a bad shot in his o wn game
franchise and Beckham’s kicks actually bend
ing in “FIFA 2003.” (For the record, “FIFA
2003” is my favorite sports video game of all
time because it’s the only one I’m good at. And
because last month, I sent a Beckham free kick
into the upper-right comer of the goal from 35
yards. Not that I’m bragging.)
Turn to Hockaday, page 12