The Duke men's golf team enjoyed a roller coaster ride this weekend. Unfortunately, instead of being at an amusement park, the Blue Devils were competing in the Puerto Rico Golf Classic.
Duke started off the tournament on a large dip as it shot a first-round score of 311 to start off in 13th place out of a field of 15 teams. The Blue Devils then reached the highest of highs in the second round when they shot the best round of the tournament with a score of 284 to move into sixth place. In the third round, however, Duke took another down turn as it shot a 304 and fell into eighth place.
"The first day it was windy," head coach Rod Myers said. "The second day was the nicest of all the days and the third day was definitely the hardest. The pin placements were difficult and they really backed them up. However, most of the inconsistencies were due to us not really being ready to play. The weather at home has prevented us from practicing as much as we've wanted to."
Duke was able to grind out a large amount of the rust it had been feeling by the end of the first day, but by that time it was nearly too late, as it then trailed first-place Florida by 26 strokes. Duke, however, was able to compete with other schools which have also felt the damage of the latest winter freeze. North Carolina was only two strokes ahead of the Blue Devils after the first day and North Carolina State was one of the two schools Duke was ahead of after the first round as the Wolfpack managed only a feeble 313.
After such an up-and-down tournament, the Blue Devils appropriately finished in the middle of the Atlantic Coast Conference pack. Duke was able to beat Georgia Tech and NCSU while also edging UNC by a stroke, but Duke found itself six strokes off the pace of Virginia and Wake Forest and a whopping 23 shots behind Clemson, which finished in second place overall and had three golfers in the top 10 individually. It's a long way from the ACC Championships in late April, but Myers was happy that the team beat a few conference opponents. The players, however, are tired of being mired in the pack for the ACC title.
"I've been in the middle of the ACC my first three years at Duke," senior Justin Klein said. "I'm tired of that. Looking at the ACC this year...if we play our best we have a shot of winning the ACC Championship."
Although Clemson finished well ahead of the Blue Devils, an ACC Championship does not seem out of reach if Duke plays at its top level. Klein is a perfect example of this, as he shot a second-round 66, which was not only the tournament's low score, but it tied a tournament record for low score in a round. Unfortunately, Klein had shot an opening round 79 and followed up his record-tying performance with an 80 to finish in 58th place overall.
"Shooting the 66 was great," Klein said. "It tied the tournament record, but to come back and play the third round in 80 is terrible."
Duke's best performance came from junior Jason Buha, who tied for 17th place overall with a score of 223. He hindered himself with an opening-round 79, but bounced back impressively with 71-73 to complete his tournament.
Also pacing Duke was the most consistent of the Blue Devils-Chris Schmid. Schmid shot a 76-75-74 for a total of 225. That was good for a tie for 23rd place. In another pleasant surprise, Eric Bertrand shot a 79-74-77 to finish as Duke's third-best scorer.
"I'm very happy with our score because of the way it happened," Myers said. "It wasn't our top guys carrying us, but Schmid and Bertrand-our so-called fourth and fifth players-were very solid and very consistent and that's what we're looking for from them. I think those guys should walk away feeling very positive."
If these players are able to keep up this level of play and Klein and fellow senior Joe Ogilvie return to typical form, Duke may see itself in contention for the lead instead of sifting through the middle of the pack. Ogilvie, Duke's stroke leader during the fall season with a 73.6 average, shot a 77-73-81 for a 231 that kept him near the back of the pack. If Ogilvie would have shot his average of a 221 for three rounds, Duke would have moved from eighth place into third. Myers feels that Ogilvie and Klein will both take their performances and build on them to return to their usual form by next meet.
The team will have two weeks to find this form as it has next weekend off before competing in the Florida Southern Invitational in Lakeland, Fla., on March 1-3. The Blue Devils will take this time to work on the consistency problem that has haunted it all season long.
"Inconsistency again has been a real problem," Klein said. "This weekend it really killed us. It's the nature of the beast. One poor round can do more damage than a good round can help out."
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