After languishing through two rounds of play, the men's golf team had every reason to pack up its bags and head home from this weekend's Palmetto Intercollegiate Classic.
The Blue Devils seemed to be headed for yet another frustrating finish in a season full of poor showings.
But in their last tournament of the year, the Blue Devils finished on a positive note, posting the second-lowest team score over the final 18 holes to finish a respectable 10th out of 17 teams.
"Yesterday we were a little discouraged by our play," head coach Rod Myers said. "Our scores should have been lower. But I thought our attitude was really good."
Led by the solid play of juniors Danny Brawley and Joe Ogilvie, the squad managed to finish in the middle of the pack, breaking a string of bottom-tier performances.
Atlantic Coast Conference rival N.C. State finished 32 strokes ahead of the Blue Devils to win the tournament hosted by the College of Charleston.
"They can see that they're really not that far from being able to compete with the other teams," Myers said. "In team golf you've got to put it all together. We need more than two or three guys playing competitively every tournament."
Myers cited poor weather conditions and tee placement to explain his team's erratic performance. But Brawley paced the Blue Devils with his 18th-place finish and broke out of a personal slump.
"It was a really great tournament for Danny," Myers said. "He had struggled a little bit coming into the weekend, but he played really well to put together a solid second round."
Ogilvie needed a third-round 71 to jumpstart his chances for another top-20 finish. His third-round total tied with fellow teammate Jason Buha for the low score of the round.
"Ogilvie got off to a slow start today, but then he really got going," Myers said. "We just needed the whole team to get going early too."
Even though the Blue Devils failed to finish in the upper echelon, the Palmetto tournament did mark the end of a tough stretch for the Blue Devils.
"It's been a frustrating year," Myers said. "We've had a lot of uphill battles, and we've come up a little short. But next year the guys can take some positive steps from this."
Relying on a group of relatively inexperienced players, the squad has had trouble staying competitive with other teams--witness last week's 8th-place finish in the nine-team ACC tournament.
According to Myers, Ogilvie is still in contention for an individual berth to the NCAA Regionals in Connecticut. Only two individuals are invited to the team tournament.
Despite the fact that the team has no chance of being invited to the NCAA Regionals this year, things could be changing. The Blue Devils have suffered from the injury of junior Justin Klein and from the team's relative lack of experience. But next year, Klein will return, and Duke should have most of its top players back--losing only seniors Chris Dauk and Raleigh Shoemaker to graduation.
"Some guys have gotten some experience which should hopefully make us better in the future," Myers said. "We should be a decent golf team next year if we can take advantage of the experience from this year."
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