Paton Nabs Silver in Varsity Debut

Ducks take third at Giustina Memorial Classic.

University of Oregon's John Paton

CORVALLIS, Ore, - John Paton shot a final round 69 to lead Oregon to a third place finish Tuesday at the season-opening Giustina Memorial Classic, played at the par-72, 7,030-yard Trysting Tree Golf Course.

Paton’s 69 left him at 8-under 208 overall and alone in second place, just one shot back of tournament champion Trent Sanders of Washington State, who had a 71 and finished at 207.

Not bad for a redshirt-sophomore from Hillsborough, Calif., playing in his first varsity tournament at Oregon.

“I’m really excited for Jack,” said Oregon head coach Casey Martin. “He just played phenomenally. He really looked like he belonged at this level and that’s been a long time coming for Jack.

“His short game has come a long way,” said Casey. He’s very tall, about 6-6 and one of the tallest college golfers in the NCAA. He can drive the ball a ton, but he has been erratic around the greens and I challenged him to work on that over the summer and he did. He made a lot of putts. We have found one more guy to challenge for a spot in our starting five and I’m very excited about that.”

Oregon also got a top-10 finish from sophomore Eugene Wong, who tied for sixth at 4-under 212 after closing with a 71. Junior Isaiah Telles had a 74 was 18th at 2-over 218. Sophomore Andrew Vijarro and junior Sean Maekawa tied for 24th at 222, though Vijarro was battling a case of the stomach flu on the way to a final round 77.

“Truthfully, it wasn’t our best tournament and it wasn’t our worst,” said Martin. “We had our top guy out with a broken finger (sophomore Daniel Miernicki) and another caught the stomach flu so this particular tournament became more of a challenge for us, but I still thought we could have competed a little better and finished higher.”

Oregon State won the tournament at 20-under 844. Washington State was next at 853 with the Ducks four back at 857. Nevada took fourth at 686 with Cal Poly fifth (869) and Boise State sixth (893).

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