The men's golf team got what it needed most at this weekend's Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Rocky Mount, N.C., -- a bad tournament from senior Tom Hurley.
Hurley, who has led the team all year, shot a 227, placing 34th for the tournament. While unfortunate for Hurley, the rest of the team needed to use this to prove to itself that it was a team that could get the job done. It did.
Thanks to the help of the reserves, Duke tied for fourth place with Virginia and North Carolina State. Georgia Tech proved why it is ranked No. 1 in the nation by placing five strokes ahead of Clemson and 15 ahead of third-place Wake Forest to take home the title.
Senior Jason Widener shot a dead par 72-72-72 for a three-day total of 216. This was good enough for him to claim sixth place overall.
"I was really pleased for Jason," head coach Rod Myers said. "He had a couple of bad breaks that kept him from being a front runner, but he had some great finishes on rounds which kept him in the hunt."
Freshman Justin Klein had another strong performance this week with a total of 221, for a five-over par, and junior Aaron Crewse came up with a solid game, shooting a 222 (six-over par) on his return to the lineup. Crewse was having some trouble shooting off the tees but was magical once he reached the green. Crewse needed only 22 putts to complete his final round.
"Aaron really played great," Myers said. "He was confident, and had a positive outlook for the tournament. He was having a little concentration problem which gave him some troubles."
The play of these Blue Devils -- along with junior Mike Muehr who rounded out the scoring for Duke with a nine-over-par 225 -- kept the Blue Devils in the tournament.
Even with all this help Duke was in sixth place after two days of playing and fell back even further on the third day. With five holes remaining Duke was alone in sixth, six strokes behind both Virginia and N.C. State. Instead of settling for another mediocre performance Duke raised its play to a championship level. Widener birdied three of the last six holes, Crewse three of the last four, and all five golfers birdied the final hole to bring Duke into the fourth-place tie.
"Those are the types of comebacks that make champions," Myers said. "If we can use this momentum to carry over into the NCAA Regionals in a few weeks we will be a strong team there."
Although the Blue Devils are content with their finish they know they could do better.
"I was fairly pleased with the team," Myers said. "It was a definite improvement. We played some solid golf, but there is room for more improvement."
Look for an up-and-coming Duke team next weekend at the Cavalier Invitational in Charlottesville, Va.
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