Men's Golf Heads to Oregon Duck Invitational
3/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
March 18, 2011
Pepperdine Men's Golf Notes 
MALIBU, Calif. -- The Pepperdine men's golf team continues its busy spring season at the Oregon Duck Invitational next week. After his fourth top-three finish of the season at the Waves' last outing, Andrew Putnam is ranked among the nation's top 10 players by Golfstat. This is just the second time in the last six seasons the Waves have played in Oregon's tournament.
COURSE/SCHEDULE -- The tournament will be held at the par-72, 7,020-yard Eugene (Ore.) Country Club. There will be 36 holes on Monday (March 21) and another 18 on Tuesday (March 22).
FIELD -- There will be 15 teams at the tournament: Pepperdine, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico State, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Oregon State, Portland, Rice, San Francisco, San Jose State, Santa Clara, UAB, UC Davis and Washington.
PEPPERDINE LINEUP -- The Waves will send their most veteran lineup out for the second straight tournament and the fourth time overall. It consists of seniors Austyn Karle (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Prep), Andrew Putnam (University Place, Wash./Life Christian Academy) and Andrew Widmar (El Paso, Texas/Cathedral HS), junior Josh Anderson (Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta Valley HS) and sophomore Johnny Mac Arthur (Newhall, Calif./Hart HS).
STATISTICS -- Season scoring averages for the five players in the lineup are: Putnam 71.19 (seven tournaments), Anderson 72.71 (seven), Mac Arthur 74.90 (seven), Widmar 75.13 (five), Karle 76.27 (five).
RESULTS -- Live scoring will be provided at www.golfstat.com.
RANKINGS -- The Waves are ranked #34 by Golfweek/Sagarin and #35 by Golfstat ... Andrew Putnam is #9 by Golfstat and #23 by Golfweek/Sagarin ... Josh Anderson is #96 by Golfweek/Sagarin.
2010-11 INDIVIDUAL HIGHLIGHTS -- A Pepperdine player has won medalist honors at three tournaments this season. Josh Anderson (10-under 206) and Andrew Putnam (6-under 210) finished 1-2 at the season-opening Husky Invitational. It was Anderson's second career victory ... Putnam (4-under 212) was tri-medalist at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate for his first career win ... Putnam won his second tournament of 2010-11 by besting the field at the Arizona Intercollegiate by three strokes with a 7-under 206.
2010-11 TEAM HIGHLIGHTS -- Pepperdine (17-under 847) won the season-opening Husky Invitational, finishing ahead of host Washington by seven strokes. The Waves had the second-best 54-hole team score in school history. A 12-under 276 during the second round tied the fifth-best 18-hole team score in program history ... The Waves also finished second at the Arizona Intercollegiate and recorded a fifth-place result at the General Hackler Championship.
2010-11 HONORS -- Andrew Putnam was recently named to the 26-player Hogan Award watch list ... In preseason publications, Putnam was ranked among Golfweek's top 20 to 30 players in the country and was named one of the nation's top 50 players to watch by Golf World ... Putnam was named WCC Player of the Month for February (his fifth time winning the honor) ... Josh Anderson was Golfweek's Player of the Week on Sept. 27 after winning the Husky Invitational ... Anderson was named WCC Player of the Month for September (his third time winning the honor).
MORE PUTNAM -- Senior Andrew Putnam earned All-American honorable mention honors as a freshman and sophomore and is in the midst of a strong final year of college golf, which includes the first two victories of his career as well as second and third-place finishes. Last summer, he won the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship and qualified for the U.S. Open. He's finished in the top 20 in 34 of his 43 career tournaments. On Pepperdine's career records lists, he's second in scoring (72.51), second in top 20 finishes (34) and fourth in top 10 results (20).
MORE ANDERSON -- Junior Josh Anderson has won two career tournaments: the General Hackler Championship in spring 2010 and the Husky Invitational in fall 2010. His career scoring average of 73.04 ranks third all-time at Pepperdine. It's believed that he became the first active Pepperdine player to compete in a PGA Tour event when he took part in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in February 2009, and he qualified for the 2011 event as well (now known as the Farmers Insurance Open).
GEIBERGER -- The 2010-11 season marks John Geiberger's 15th as head coach of Pepperdine. In his first season as coach of the Waves, Geiberger led the team to the 1997 NCAA national title, the first in team history. Under Geiberger's guidance, Pepperdine has won the WCC title 10 times (1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2010) and he has earned the league's Coach of the Year honors on five occasions (1997, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2005).
2010-11 ROSTER -- The Waves return five players from last season (three seniors, a redshirt junior and a redshirt sophomore). To replace four seniors that graduated, the Waves have three freshmen on the roster, bringing the current roster total up to eight.
2009-10 RECAP -- Pepperdine won the West Coast Conference title for the 17th time and the first since 2007 to highlight the 2009-10 season. The Waves advanced to the NCAA South Central Regional, their 12th straight season in the postseason. Josh Anderson, Andrew Putnam and Carl Smith were named to the All-WCC first team. Pepperdine ranked #33 in the final Golfweek/Sagarin index, while Putnam was #71 as an individual.
PEPPERDINE GOLF HISTORY -- Following the blueprint of other athletics programs at Pepperdine, the men's golf team blossomed as a nationally recognized program and the Waves reached the pinnacle of success in May 1997 by winning the NCAA title for the first time. Pepperdine has made seven appearances at the NCAA Championships since 1993, has made 12 consecutive NCAA Regional berths and has won 17 of the last 24 West Coast Conference Championships.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE -- Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won a total of nine NCAA championships in five different men's sports -- one of just 14 schools to have accomplished this feat. Of the 14, Pepperdine is the only non-BCS school and has by far the smallest enrollment. The majority of Pepperdine's teams are ranked nationally year after year and compete for conference and national titles.
