Eugene Wong Ends Nick Taylor's College Career

After three rounds of stroke play over The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn., Washington wound up in fourth place one shot in front of Oregon, 850-851, and faced off against the Ducks in match play competition.

The decisive match of the single-elimination tournament came down to the final pairing on the 18th hole between two of Canada's top junior players, Taylor, the 2010 Ben Hogan Award winner, and Wong, who not only shared 2010 Co-Pac-10 Player of the Year honors, but grew up together playing junior golf in British Columbia.

With Wong holding a one-stroke lead entering the final hole the sophomore All-American pushed his tee shot right, but managed to recover and match Taylor -- ranked No. 2 on the R & A's World Amateur list -- thus ending the match and sending the Ducks into Saturday's semifinal against top seed Oklahoma State..

With files from Oregon & Washington universities

The stage was set for Wong's heroics after victories by Jack Dukeminier and Andrew Vijarro offset wins recorded by Washington's Darren Wallace (of Langley, BC) and Chris Williams.

Like the Wong/Taylor duel, Dukeminier, who equaled the competition course record with a 66 Thursday, and UW's Charlie Hughes (of Maple Ridge, BC) were forced to play 18, but their match was all square heading down the final fairway. Dukeminier made par, while Hughes three-putted for bogey.

"We certainly didn't give it to them," said Husky coach Matt Thurmond. "It was a great match and Nick played really well, it's just that Eugene never made a mistake. It came down to that match and Eugene was awesome. It was just one shot -- and they made one more shot than we did."

The match up between Washington, who entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed, and Oregon, who came in as the top-ranked team, was definitely one for the ages. At the turn, Oregon held a 2-1-2 advantage, but Washington was able to whittle their lead down by 15 and take the lead. Ultimately though, Oregon proved resilient and held on to end the Huskies season.

"It's the best team we have ever had and today really, really sucks," said Huskies Óead Coach Matt Thurmond. "But, it doesn't take away anything that's already been done, which is some pretty cool historic stuff. We didn't expect to be done today, so we're disappointed."

The loss means that the Husky careers are over for Taylor, Lee, Wallace and Chris Killmer, who did not compete in Tennessee. The group were a part of the first-ever back-to-back Pac-10 Championships squads and first-ever team win at the NCAA Regional.

Commenting on the play of his star sophomore Eugene Wong, Oregon coach Head Coach Casey Martin remarked:

"I am drained. It is way more nervous to be out there watching. I was glad that (Eugene) Wong had the putter at the end. He is a heck of a player and had an amazing year. If anyone you wanted to put it on the line, you want Eugene doing it."

And on the final match-up between Taylor and Wong:

"It was an incredible start, I mean, Nick Taylor (Washington) left it hanging on the lip for eagle. I mean like a centimeter away, then Wong birdied on top of him. They both hit great shots on the par five and birdied, and then, Nick Taylor hit it to within six inches on a 220-yard par 3. (Eugene) Wong had a look at it, and I am thinking 'Bring it on baby, you are going to have to play great.' I think that actually got the best out of him. Eugene (Wong) just adores Nick Taylor, and looks up to him like you can't believe. Eugene (Wong) knows how good he is. It was just a reminder that this is show time. Just to see the guys battle it out is a credit to their institution and to Canada to see two British Columbia kids battles it out."

Oregon's semifinal match will start at 9 a.m. Eastern with the winner advancing to Sunday's championship at 12 p.m. ET. Saturday's other semifinal will second-seeded Florida State vs. No. 6 seed Augusta State.

Pos. Team/Player (seed) Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Total

1 Oklahoma State 283 284 283 850
T2 Peter Uihlein (2) 69 68 71 208
T14 Kevin Tway (1) 74 71 68 213
T18 Morgan Hoffmann (3) 70 70 74 214
T34 Trent Whitekiller (4) 70 76 70 216
T111 Sean Einhaus (5) 75 75 76 226

2 Florida State 283 279 292 854
T6 Drew Kittleson (1) 70 70 71 211
T18 Brooks Koepka (3) 71 71 72 214
T18 Michael Hebert (5) 73 68 73 214
T58 Seath Lauer (4) 69 70 80 219
T90 Wesley Graham (2) 76 71 76 223

3 Georgia Tech 290 282 286 858
T9 Paul Haley (5) 70 69 73 212
T14 Chesson Hadley (2) 72 72 69 213
T25 John Tyler Griffin (1) 71 72 72 215
T72 James White (3) 77 72 72 221
T72 Kyle Scott (4) 78 69 74 221

4 Washington 289 288 283 860
T9 Chris Williams (3) 72 71 69 212
T41 Nick Taylor (1) 73 73 71 217
T41 Darren Wallace (4) 75 70 72 217
T51 Richard Lee (2) 70 77 71 218
T124 Charlie Hughes (5) 74 74 80 228

5 Oregon 284 294 283 861
T9 Eugene Wong (2) 69 72 71 212
T34 Jack Dukeminier (3) 74 76 66 216
T51 Isaiah Telles (4) 71 75 72 218
T72 Andrew Vijarro (5) 76 71 74 221
T103 Daniel Miernicki (1) 70 80 75 225

6 Augusta State 287 288 288 863
5 Henrik Norlander (5) 68 69 73 210
T51 Mitch Krywulycz (1) 72 74 72 218
T58 Patrick Reed (4) 74 75 70 219
T72 Taylor Floyd (2) 73 70 78 221
T146 Carter Newman (3) 77 83 73 233

7 Texas Tech 302 285 280 867
T14 Chris Ward (2) 75 71 67 213
T25 Tyler Weworski (4) 74 71 70 215
T51 Matt Smith (3) 80 71 67 218
T90 Nils Floren (1) 75 72 76 223
T148 Finley Ewing IV (5) 78 78 78 234

T8 Stanford 292 288 288 868
T14 Sihwan Kim (3) 71 71 71 213
T34 Andrew Yun (4) 74 73 69 216
T41 Steve Ziegler (2) 72 71 74 217
T95 Joseph Bramlett (5) 75 73 76 224
T116 David Chung (1) 78 75 74 227

T8 Arizona State 286 292 290 868
T41 Scott Pinckney (2) 74 70 73 217
T41 James Byrne (5) 74 73 70 217
T72 Knut Borsheim (3) 70 77 74 221
T86 Jesper Kennegard (1) 68 77 77 222
T111 Braxton Marquez (4) 81 72 73 226

T8 San Diego 294 282 292 868
T2 Alex Ching (2) 69 66 73 208
T25 Gunner Wiebe (1) 75 68 72 215
T103 Kenneth McCready (3) 74 79 72 225
T124 Jason Shano (4) 76 73 79 228
T128 Scott Brace (5) 79 75 75 229

T11 Florida 287 289 293 869
T34 Andres Echavarria (4) 73 70 73 216
T34 Phillip Choi (5) 69 74 73 216
T64 Tyson Alexander (1) 73 72 75 220
T72 Tim McKenney (2) 72 73 76 221
T86 Bank Vongvanij (3) 73 77 72 222

T11 Virginia 300 280 289 869
T25 Will Collins (2) 74 70 71 215
T34 Kyle Stough (5) 74 69 73 216
T51 Ben Kohles (1) 72 75 71 218
T111 Henry Smart (4) 82 66 78 226
T146 Amory Davis (3) 80 79 74 233

13 Texas A&M 285 304 282 871
T18 Ignacio Elvira (3) 70 75 69 214
T18 Cameron Peck (4) 70 72 72 214
T64 Andrea Pavan (1) 71 76 73 220
T116 Conrad Shindler (5) 74 81 72 227
T135 Jordan Russell (2) 79 82 69 230

14 North Florida, U. of 292 293 287 872
T25 Sean Dale (1) 72 74 69 215
T41 J.C. Horne (3) 73 74 70 217
T111 Kevin Phelan (2) 72 71 83 226
T116 Joe Byun (4) 75 76 76 227
T128 Jordan Gibb (5) 83 74 72 229

15 Southern California 295 290 289 874
T25 T.J. Vogel (1) 74 72 69 215
T41 Steve Lim (3) 74 72 71 217
T64 Matthew Giles (2) 73 75 72 220
T95 Martin Trainer (4) 75 71 78 224
T111 Sam Smith (5) 74 75 77 226

T16 Oregon State U. 295 293 287 875
4 Diego Velasquez (1) 71 72 66 209
T72 Morten Madsen (3) 77 71 73 221
T90 Alex Moore (4) 79 71 73 223
T128 Mike Barry (2) 71 79 79 229
T139 Nick Sherwood (5) 76 80 75 231

T16 Clemson 286 291 298 875
T9 Ben Martin (1) 70 72 70 212
T72 Luke Hopkins (2) 69 74 78 221
T72 Corbin Mills (5) 74 72 75 221
T103 Jacob Burger (3) 73 77 75 225
T152 Crawford Reeves (4) 84 73 78 235

T16 UCLA 294 286 295 875
T9 Gregor Main (1) 71 69 72 212
T58 Pontus Widegren (2) 69 71 79 219
T90 Alex Kim (3) 76 73 74 223
T116 Pedro Figueiredo (4) 78 73 76 227
T148 Mario Clemens (5) 80 81 73 234

19 Illinois 304 285 287 876
1 Scott Langley (1) 70 68 68 206
T64 Chris DeForest (4) 76 72 72 220
T86 Luke Guthrie (2) 81 70 71 222
T128 Zach Barlow (3) 77 75 77 229
T154 Matt Hoffman (5) 83 79 76 238

20 Kent State 292 293 292 877
T6 John Hahn (1) 72 70 69 211
T41 Mackenzie Hughes (3) 74 70 73 217
T72 Kevin Miller (4) 70 75 76 221
T128 Isaac Charette (5) 76 79 74 229
T154 Brett Cairns (2) 78 78 82 238

T21 UNLV 294 292 293 879
T25 Derek Ernst (1) 72 71 72 215
T64 Kevin Penner (5) 77 72 71 220
T103 Eddie Olson (2) 74 75 76 225
T103 Brett Kanda (4) 76 74 75 225
T116 Colby Smith (3) 72 80 75 227

T21 Texas 290 296 293 879
T51 Bobby Hudson (3) 74 70 74 218
T64 Cody Gribble (1) 75 76 69 220
T64 Lance Lopez (2) 69 75 76 220
T72 Dylan Frittelli (4) 72 75 74 221
T148 Charlie Holland (5) 75 80 79 234

23 California, U. of 293 294 293 880
T41 Michael Weaver (1) 75 73 69 217
T86 Max Homa (4) 79 71 72 222
T95 Stephen Hale (3) 74 77 73 224
T95 Eric Mina (5) 72 73 79 224
T135 Brandon Hagy (2) 72 77 81 230

24 LSU 303 290 290 883
T6 John Peterson (5) 73 68 70 211
T72 Andrew Loupe (1) 75 72 74 221
T95 Clayton Rotz (3) 77 73 74 224
T128 Austin Gutgsell (4) 78 79 72 229
T135 Sang Yi (2) 78 77 75 230

T25 Baylor 294 295 295 884
T25 Lorenzo Scotto (3) 76 69 70 215
T90 Ryan O'Rear (4) 69 77 77 223
T95 Payne Gniewek (2) 75 75 74 224
T95 Cody Paladino (5) 76 74 74 224
T135 Joakim Mikkelsen (1) 74 79 77 230

T25 Tennessee 297 292 295 884
T25 David Holmes (2) 72 73 70 215
T51 Garrick Porteous (4) 73 70 75 218
T58 Robin Wingardh (1) 74 72 73 219
T141 Jay Vandeventer (5) 78 77 77 232
T154 Darren Renwick (3) 82 77 79 238

T27 Duke 296 297 296 889
T41 Wes Roach (3) 69 73 75 217
T64 Adam Long (2) 73 75 72 220
T103 Brinson Paolini (1) 76 75 74 225
T128 Spencer Anderson (5) 78 74 77 229
T139 Julian Suri (4) 79 77 75 231

T27 TCU 302 296 291 889
T58 Johan de Beer (1) 74 73 72 219
T58 Travis Woolf (2) 76 70 73 219
T116 Daniel Jennevret (3) 78 78 71 227
T124 Eli Cole (5) 74 76 78 228
T141 Pontus Gad (4) 80 77 75 232

29 Penn State U. 301 298 299 898
T72 TJ Howe (2) 76 74 71 221
T116 Kevin Foley (1) 79 76 72 227
T116 Ernie Marin (4) 77 72 78 227
T141 Tommy McDonagh (3) 71 76 85 232
T148 Jim Markovitz (5) 77 79 78 234

30 Georgia Southern 297 299 309 905
T72 Spencer Fulford (3) 71 74 76 221
T95 Logan Blondell (1) 73 74 77 224
T141 Florian Sander (2) 77 79 76 232
T141 Ryan Zabroske (4) 76 76 80 232
T152 Matt Deal (5) 79 75 81 235

Individuals

Pos. Player (Team) Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Total
T18 Robbie Fillmore (Brigham Young) 74 71 69 214
T18 Russell Henley (Georgia) 71 73 70 214
T34 Rhys Enoch (East Tennessee St.) 72 74 70 216
T103 Nick Delio (CSU-Northridge) 76 77 72 225
T103 Espen Kofstad (Denver, U. of) 76 78 71 225
T124 Marshall Bailey (Virginia Tech) 77 72 79 228