Hampered by injury and inexperience, the men's golf team struggled to a 13th-place finish in the Carpet Capital Classic this weekend in Dalton, Ga.
The Blue Devils, led by the solid play of junior Joe Ogilvie and sophomore Jason Buha, came back from last place after two rounds of play in the 15-team tournament hosted by Atlantic Coast Conference power Georgia Tech.
"We didn't do anything great," head coach Rod Myers said. "We were a little disappointed with our finish--we felt that we could have finished above a couple more teams."
Ogilvie paced the Blue Devils with his 21st-place finish in the overall standings and a three-day total of 226.
"I had hoped Joe would finish in the top-10, but his second round really hurt his chances," Myers said.
Buha finished one stroke behind Ogilvie to finish in a tie for 24th-place.
"This was a good tournament for Jason Buha," Myers said. "It was a positive step forward. He felt confident with his stroke and we feel he'll only get better."
Despite Buha's encouraging play, the Blue Devils had their share of problems during the three-day tournament, won by Georgia Tech.
The relatively young Duke team featured no seniors in this match and only a few golfers with big-time tournament experience.
"This was an all underclass team," Myers said. "Since all of our guys are so close together in terms of talent, it's best if we get some experience for the younger guys."
That commitment to building a better team for the future left the Blue Devils in a difficult position, facing some of the best teams in the country on a difficult course.
"What really hurt us was that we didn't have the low scores from the three, four, and five guys to match up with the other teams," Myers said.
Those three spots were filled by talented, yet erratic golfers junior Jason Brawley, freshman Chris Schmid and sophomore Eric Bertrand. The Carpet Capital Classic marked the first action of the year for Bertrand, who finished with a three-day total of 240.
"This was Eric's first, real tournament, and it was a tough way to get started," Myers said. "But I think we've made some progress. The players are much better than the scores they're shooting."
In addition to the young lineup, the Blue Devils were without the services of junior Justin Klein. Klein, the lone remaining member of Duke's 1993 NCAA squad, sat out the weekend with a shoulder injury. He had been expected to be one of the Blue Devils' top performers this year.
"One of the things that really hurt us was that Klein was out," Myers said. "If he had been here we would have finished ten or twelve shots lower."
Myers expects Klein to return next fall after undergoing rehabilitation for the next few months.
Although this has been a tough year for the Blue Devils, Myers expects things to turn around soon.
"We hope to have a couple of good finishes before the year is over," Myers said. "At the ACC championships, my hope would be to finish in the top four or five slots, which would be a pretty good accomplishment for us. We need to take some small steps this year so that next year we'll feel better about our chances of competing."
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