The men's golf team finished with a 295 in the final round of competition on Tuesday at the Northwestern University Windom Memorial Classic, but narrowly missed earning the lowest score for the day.
Too bad Stanford had to have the help of a Tiger Woods 67 to capture a 292 for the final round.
With the help of their 295, the Blue Devils finished in fourth place at the Memorial Classic, held on two different golf courses in the Chicago area. Florida captured the tournament honors, while Stanford and Texas A&M locked up second and third places. Duke shot a 904, coming in just two strokes behind the Aggies.
"I felt really good about today's play," head coach Rod Myers said on Tuesday. "The fourth-place finish was very good. We beat a couple of ranked teams."
Duke was paced by senior Joe Ogilvie, who picked up fourth place individually. Ogilvie shot scores of 74 and 76 on the opening two rounds, but came in at a two-under-par 70 on Tuesday to finish at 220.
"I think he's playing really well," Myers said of Ogilvie. "He's given us low scores--I think he's been under par at least one round in every tournament. I think he'd like to be under par for the tournament."
Junior Jason Buha tied for sixth place, notching a 223. Duke's other three players--junior Eric Bertrand, senior Justin Klein and senior Danny Brawley--finished with scores of 230, 231 and 244, respectively.
"We need a little bit more consistency in the fourth and fifth slots," Myers said. "Naturally you can't have both guys playing badly in the same round. If one guy plays badly and the other guy plays well then you're going to be OK. I think those guys certainly can play that way. Justin's struggled a little bit and he wants to play a little bit better."
Duke managed to pick up lower scores this tournament, despite playing on some unfamiliar grass surfaces. The team practices and plays on bermuda grass in North Carolina and in most of the South, but courses in the North use bent grass, which gives different breaks in putting.
"I thought this tournament was a good, strong field for us," Myers said. "We were what I call outside of our grass familiarity. It's a little bit of a change and an adjustment."
The Blue Devils won their opening tournament this fall, the Kiawah Intercollegiate Tournament. Despite lower finishes in some other tournaments, Myers believes his team can keep improving.
"I'm really optimistic about this team," Myers said. "Even in a couple of tournaments that we didn't play so well, we had one really good round stuck in there. I think they certainly showed what their capabilities are, and any team's got to have consistency for good performance. I'm very hopeful that this team can have it."
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