For the first day of their tournament this weekend in Cary, N.C., the men's golf team had a special guest coach.
Ron Schmid, director of the Duke Athletic Fund and father of team captain Chris Schmid, stepped in while coach Rod Myers was officiating the Masters in Augusta, Ga.
"I had the chance to officiate down there on Thursday and Friday," Myers said. "It was extremely exciting. It really motivates the spring season and gets you fired up about the sport."
Even without Myers for the first two rounds on Friday, Duke was able to capture a fourth-place finish, beating No. 4 Clemson by one stroke in the process. Six Atlantic Coast Conference teams participated in the BellSouth Yellow Pages Intercollegiate at the MacGregor Downs Country Club, making it excellent preparation for the ACC Tournament this weekend.
Duke finished behind Wake Forest and North Carolina, but ahead of Clemson, N.C. State and Virginia.
"Our conference is extremely competitive," Myers said. "We see the signs that we can really be competetive and we see that we are competitive."
The highlight of the weekend for the Blue Devils was beating top-ranked UNLV, the tournament-champion, by six strokes in the final round.
The two low-scorers for Duke were sophomore Mike Christensen and junior Marc Chatelain, who tied for 11th place with four-over par 220s. Under his father's tutelage, Chris Schmid finished 15th with a 221.
As a team, Duke shot, 291-297-291-879. The second round was problematic, due partially to the cold weather, rain and the fatigue of playing 36 holes in one day.
"That middle round really hurt us in terms of having a chance to win the tournament," Myers said. "Thirty-six holes is a lot of golf in the rain."
The tournament offered redemption of some sort for the Blue Devils, who are trying to prove to the NCAA selection committee that two poor performances earlier this year were flukes. The Blue Devils finished second-to-last in October at the Duke Golf Classic and last in Puerto Rico in February, but have performed solidly since.
"Right now we feel like we're trying to climb a mountain to qualify for Regionals," Myers said. "We put ourselves into a bind with the two really poor performances in the fall."
This weekend, the Blue Devils travel to New London, N.C. for the ACC Tournament.
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