Oregon's Eastick Wins Women's Giustina Memorial Classic

Washington State took the team title followed by Oregon State.

Photo courtesy: goducks.com

CORVALLIS, Ore. - University of Oregon sophomore Felicia Eastick successfully capped her season opener Tuesday with a win in the Giustina Memorial Classic, held at Trysting Tree Golf Course.

The Queensland, Australia native added a stroke to her first-day lead with a 74 final round to finish with an overall score of 217, two strokes better than Washington State’s Amy Eneroth (72-75-72-219). Kelly Nakashima of Idaho followed in third place (74-70-77-221).

“It feels great to come out on top,” Eastick said. “I’ve been playing against a lot of these girls since last year and know they are talented. It’s always nice to beat people of that caliber.”

Eastick entered the day atop the leaderboard after Monday’s opening rounds of 74 and 69 on the par 72, 6,271-yard course.

Her second round 69 was a two-stroke collegiate best, and Tuesday's first collegiate victory improved on her previous best finish - a pair of 13th-place efforts in the Duck Invitational and Indiana Invitational last April.

“My goal was to try and finish top 10 to start off the year,” Eastick said. “(Coming into today), I tried not to have any expectations. I was excited with my rounds yesterday and wanted to keep playing the same way. I was trying not to think about whether I was leading or not, and not get ahead of myself.”

Eastick became the third Duck individual tournament victor in as many seasons after Cathryn Bristow won the OSU Invitational on the same course in ’05 (70-74-73-217) and Kim McCready won the Baja Classic last February in Baja, Calif. (70-75-145).

“This morning Coach (Rouillard) said to stay in the moment, play every shot as it comes and always be positive,” Eastick said. “I ran into a little trouble early on the second hole when I put it in the bunker on the left, but I was able to get up and down. I had some birdies to finish the front nine and then some pars before another bogey. A key point was on the 13th hole when I had a three-foot putt. I felt like I could lose it if I didn’t make it, and I did.”

Freshman Kendra Little and Bristow also notched top-20 finishes overall and tied for 12th and 16th places with scores of 227 and 229, respectively.

Little shot a final round 75 to climb five spots Tuesday after her rounds of 73 and 79 Monday, and Bristow improved a position with her 76 Tuesday after she opened with first round scores of 73 and 80.

Junior Blair Ressler capped Oregon’s scoring in a tie for 24th place overall – her highest collegiate finish – thanks to a 76 Tuesday. She finished with an overall score of 231 after she carded scores of 79 and 76 Monday.

Oregon’s other entrant, freshman Erica Omlid, tied for 31st place thanks to a 75 Tuesday – one shot off the Duck low of the day by Eastick, and ended with a 237 after three rounds (72-80-75).

Overall as a team, UO finished third in the 10-team field (299-304-300-903) behind Washington State (first, 298-296-292-886) and Oregon State (second, 303-296-301-900).

UC Riverside followed in fourth place (300-308-310-918), just ahead of Idaho (fifth, 308-302-310-920).

“For our first tournament out, we had a really solid performance,” Oregon head coach Shannon Rouillard said. “It was really exciting to see Felicia come out and win. She’s a hard worker, and showed that she put in her time practicing this summer. It was a scoreable course so you could make some birdies, and set up to play well. It was pretty competitive up top between the Northwest schools. We’re going to see them again later this season, so this was a good chance to size up where we’re starting at, and go from there.”

Complete women's final round results in PDF format are available in the link above to the right.

The UO men also played in the same OSU-hosted event, and tied for third place with UC Irvine and Portland with an 11-under 853.

Freshman Sean Maekawa led the Ducks and finished seventh overall thanks to a final round 69 Tuesday on the 7,030-yard, par-72 course.

Oregon State won the men’s title by eight strokes over Fresno State (second, 851).

Looking ahead, the Oregon women have a week off before they play in the Heather Fall Memorial, Monday-Tuesday, October 1-2, in Denver, Colo.

Giustina Memorial Classic

THIRD ROUND FINAL RESULTS

Women’s Team Results – 1, Washington State, 298-296-292-886. 2, Oregon State, 303-296-301-900. 3, Oregon, 299-304-300-903. 4, UC Riverside, 300-308-310-918. 5, Idaho, 308-302-310-920. 6, Boise State, 306-306-310-922. 7t, Fresno State, 299-318-306-923. 7t, UC Irvine, 300-301-322-923. 9, Portland, 319-312-333-964. 10, Idaho State, 336-336-339-1011.

Women’s Individual Results – 1, Felicia Eastick, Oregon, 74-69-74-217. 2, Amy Eneroth, Washington State, 72-75-72-219. 3, Kelly Nakashima, Idaho, 74-70-77-221. 4, Jennifer Bermingham, UC Riverside, 74-78-70-222. 5t, Diana Hong, Washington State, 77-71-75-223. 5t, Jessi Gebhardt, Oregon State, 71-80-72-223. 7t, Nikki Olson, Boise State, 77-73-74-224. 7t, Laura Luethke, Fresno State, 71-79-74-224. 9t, Julianna Uhrik, Oregon State, 77-71-77-225. 9t, Alexandra Erdman, UC Riverside, 73-71-81-225. 9t, Tracy Broders, Washington State, 73-74-78-225.

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