The men's golf team ended its season in bittersweet fashion Wednesday by capturing the John Ryan Iron Duke Classic held at the Duke Golf Course. The Blue Devils entered the tournament with hopes that they would gain an NCAA regional bid, a hope that ended when bids were announced Monday and Duke was not included.
"We did great [this week]. I didn't know what to expect coming in because we just found out Monday we weren't going to make it to the NCAA regionals," sophomore Justin Klein said. "With three seniors on the team that was sort of disheartening. We went out and gave it 100 percent. We played great and deserved to win."
Six other Atlantic Coast Conference teams received bids to the tournament. They were: Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and Maryland.
"We were all disappointed that we did not get selected for the NCAA championship," head coach Rod Myers said. "We felt we drew the short straw there, but we finished with a good win. We were disappointed that the committee didn't look at us and say, `This is a team that finished 10th in the NCAA last year.' And we've got three guys back from that team."
"We all know that we should be going on [to the NCAAs] ,but we basically got screwed," senior Mike Muehr said. "I guess to come out and still win shows a little bit of our pride."
Because of the somber news heard just days ago, Myers was worried that the team's play would be affected. Those fears were unnecessary.
"I was really afraid that it would be a downer for us," Myers said. "But I think all of our guys are very competitive. I think the boys were very motivated to win. I think they wanted to have a chance to show people that we do have a good team."
Duke's four-stroke victory over East Tennessee State was its second tournament championship, the other being the ECU Sheraton/Emerald Collegiate Golf Classic in New Bern. The Blue Devils had never before captured two victories in one season.
Leading Duke to the championship was Muehr, who tied for second overall with a one-over-par 217.
"Mike played real solidly, " Myers said. "It was very typical of the type of season he's had. He's just a good, solid player all the way through."
"It's a good way to go out my last tournament in college," Muehr said.
Despite Muehr's leadership throughout the entire tournament, the star of the tournament's last day was Klein, who shot a "modern" course-record 67. Despite the fact that the overall course record still stands at 63, Klein's score was a record for the newly renovated course that closed on June 1, 1993, and reopened on April 1, 1994. His effort eventually made the difference between first and second place.
"Justin played so well to shoot 67," Myers said. "As you can see, it really carries you a long way. We couldn't have won without him."
Klein, who shot a surprisingly poor 81 on Monday and a more reasonable 74 on Tuesday, attributed his course-breaking score to his ability to make putts.
"I just tried to do the same thing I did yesterday and the only difference was today the putts went in," Klein said. "I've hit the ball really well the last couple days and finally got a feel for the speed of the greens and fortunately [the putts] all went in."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.