Oregon’s Wise wins NCAAtitle; Ducks also win team

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Updated: July 5, 2016

It was high drama at Eugene Country Club for the University of Oregon men’s golf team. Playing on their home course, the Ducks already had the individual winner at the NCAA Championships in Aaron Wise, now stood in the brink of winning the team championship.

With one putt, Sulman Raza won the championship for the Ducks, beating Texas in the final of the match play tournament. So, the Ducks owned not only the individual champion but also the team championship at the NCAA Championships.

Oregon, the host team, playing in a front a large, loud home crowd at Eugene Country Club, won its first NCAA men’s golf team title, with a local kid making a dramatic putt in a playoff to give the Ducks a 3-2 win over Texas in the match play final.

Raza, a graduate of South Eugene High School, made a birdie putt on the 21st hole of his match against Taylor Funk to clinch the title, setting off a wild celebration in which teammates and the crowd rushed the green to celebrate.

The team title came two days after sophomore Wise became the first Oregon golfer to win the NCAA individual title. The Ducks became just the second team to win the individual and team titles in the same year they were hosting, and the first since 1945, when Ohio State’s John Lorms and the Buckeyes won at the Ohio State University Golf Club.

The outcome was also a hometown victory for Ducks coach Casey Martin, who also graduated from South Eugene and would come to Eugene Country Club to play when he was a kid with his father and older brother, and is still at the club practically every day. Martin won a national title as a player, with Stanford in 1994 (the year before Tiger Woods joined the program), but this one had more dimension.

The team title came down to Raza and Funk, the son of eight-time PGA Tour winner Fred Funk. They played a back-and-forth match in which neither led by more than a hole. Funk took a 1-up lead with a birdie on the par-5 15th hole, and on the 16h hole, it became clear to Raza that his match would decide the team championship as junior Thomas Lim, in the match behind his, was on his way to a 2-and-1 loss to Doug Ghim.

Raza got the match into extra holes and then won it in the playoff on the 21st hole.

The championship for the Ducks was the second in two weeks for a Northwest school at the NCAA Championships. The University of Washington women won the title the week before at Eugene Country Club.