Leach Leads Ducks in Opening Round of Auburn Regional

AUBURN, Ala. – Coming off a second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships last time he hit the course, Greyson Leach continued to lead the Oregon men's golf team in the opening round of the NCAA Auburn Regional on Monday.

The senior carded the Ducks' lowest round of the day, finishing 1 under at the Auburn University Club and enters Tuesday's second round tied for 10th individually. He was the lone Duck to finish the opening round in the red.

Leach has shot par or better in five of his last six rounds and 14 of 22 rounds in the spring.

Tough conditions – including a two-and-a-half-hour lightning delay – and trying to adjust to the southern grasses caused issues for Oregon as a team in the opening round. The Ducks shot a combined 9-over 297 as a squad, finishing the day in 11th place and sit nine strokes back of fifth-place Purdue, Texas A&M and New Mexico State heading into the second round.

"Today was a huge struggle," head coach Casey Martin said. "We started okay and then let things go mid-round. We picked a terrible time to have our worst round of the year, so we'll need some magic these next two days."

How It Happened
Teeing off on No. 10, Leach carded seven pars to start his round before making bogey on No. 17, sitting at 1 over through nine holes. Birdies on No. 2 and No. 4 brought him into the red before moving back to even after a bogey on the par-3 fifth. He made his third birdie of the day on No. 6, but play was halted due to lightning in the area. He fired his team-leading fourth birdie on No. 8 when play resumed before making bogey to close the round.

Aiden Krafft turned in the Ducks' second-best score of the day with a 2-over 74. He carded a birdie and a double bogey to go with seven pars on both the front and the back. His 14 pars tied for the fourth-most in the field.

In his NCAA Regional debut, Jay Gould-Healy made bogey on No. 14, but followed it up with a birdie and an eagle to move to 2 under at the turn. He ran into some trouble on the back, shooting a 41 to finish the day 3 over.

Eric Doyle and Ramil Saelim – also making his postseason debut – both shot a five-over 77 to round out the Oregon lineup.

Duck Scorecard
NCAA Auburn Regional
Auburn University Club – Par 72 (7,607 yards)
11. Oregon – 297 (+9)
T10. Greyson Leach – 71 (-1)
T46. Aiden Krafft – 74 (+2)
T55. Jay Gould-Healy – 75 (+3)
T66. Eric Doyle – 77 (+5)
T66. Ramil Saelim – 77 (+5)

Regional Scoreboard
1. Auburn – 275 (-13)
2. UCLA – 283 (-5)
3. Georgia Tech – 284 (-4)
4. SMU – 286 (-2)
T5. Purdue – 288 (E)
T5. Texas A&M – 288 (E)
T5. New Mexico State – 288 (E)
8. TCU – 289 (+1)
9. Little Rock – 291 (+3)
10. Charleston – 296 (+8)
11. Oregon – 297 (+9)
12. Loyola Maryland – 300 (+12)
13. USC Upstate – 309 (+21)

Notable
The Ducks rank fourth in the field with 56 birdies, but also carded the third-most bogeys in the opening round with 13 … Gould-Healy was one of just seven golfers to make an eagle on Monday.

Next Up
Second round action for the Ducks gets underway at 6:55 a.m. PT on Tuesday. The Ducks will tee off alongside Charleston and Loyola Maryland off No. 10.