Junior Marc Chatelain went above and beyond his team's expectations this weekend as he placed 15th overall at the Stanford Joe Nelson Invitational.This placement was the first top-20 finish of his men's golf career.
Even Chatelain's heroics, however, could not save the team from a disappointing final finish at Stanford University. The team placed eighth in a field of 17 teams with a total score of 892, more than 30 strokes off the pace of top-finisher Colorado State.
After shooting a season-low 69 during the second round, Chatelain's confidence was soaring going into the final round, where he finished with a total score of 218 for the three-round tournament.
Duke coach Rod Myers said Chatelain realized that he is capable of playing those kinds of rounds when the team's season starts again in the spring.
"Marc made steady progress and played consistently," coach Rod Myers said. "If some of the other players shot as well as Marc, we could have been a couple of shots better."
An improvement of a couple of shots could have meant the difference between average and above-average results for the team as a whole. However, Myers could not pinpoint one individual fault of the team. He said some problems throughout the tournament were the team's inconsistency and trouble with the putter.
"We made progress in some regards," Myers said. "But I was disappointed with the consistency overall. We had a great second round, but the first and third rounds were just average."
Chatelain, too, was slightly disappointed with the team's overall performance in the tournament. He hopes that the team will step up and improve when the spring season begins.
"We were definitely in the hole this fall and didn't do as well as we could have," Chatelain said.
The tournament at Stanford marks the end of the fall tournament season for the Blue Devils. While the fall season is oftentimes a good indication of what is to come in the spring, Myers is confident that the team can better its scores before the match season begins. The Blue Devils know that they are not a low-enough scoring team to compete with the top schools yet.
"The team has gotten a good idea of who we are and knows that we need some low scoring leadership," Myers said.
Although senior Chris Schmid, junior Kyle Elfers and sophomore Mike Christensen performed slightly below their usual performance, their play, along with Chatelain's, will be crucial if the team is to improve upon its fall showing.
Duke has the winter to practice before match play begins in Febuary. Myers knows that the players will take advantage of this time to work on their games.
"They're a hard-working group," Myers said. "And hopefully in the off-season they'll work hard, and we'll get off to a faster start come the spring."
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