Event: Oregon Duck Invitational
Where: Eugene Country Club – Eugene, Ore.
When: March 22 and 23, all day
Who to watch: Tyler Raber finished strong at the Aggies’ last tournament. After shooting 6-over par in his first round, Raber shot 3-under for the rest of the tournament, including an eagle in his second round.
The sophomore from El Macero, Calif. seems prepared to put it all together in this tournament.
“He’s a really good player,” said coach Cy Williams. “He’s been really close in the last two tournaments and he looks great in practice. He’s hitting the ball as well as he has since the fall.”
Raber is averaging a score of 73 per round and has two top-ten finishes this year, including a win at the Stockton Sports Commission Sports Invitational.
Did you know? UC Davis has faced some very tough fields this spring playing ranked teams in each of its three tournaments.
Preview: The Aggies feel that playing the best squads shows where they’re at as a team.
“We have room to get better,” Williams said. “You don’t see that when you go against weaker competition. We’ve seen that we can play with these teams, and the guys are looking good. I think we’re right on track.”
UC Davis will face another ranked field in Oregon, but the Aggies are keeping their minds centered on themselves and their goals.
“We know it’s going to be a strong field with challenging weather,” Williams said. “We need to stay focused on our own stuff. We want to have a good finish and hopefully finish in the top third.”
The Aggies’ success will be based largely on the play of junior Austin Graham.
Graham, from San Clemente, Calif., finished in the top-ten last week at the USC Collegiate Invitational. Graham has finished in the top-five twice this year and has the best stroke-per-round average of any Aggie.
– Trevor Cramer
