The men's golf team never had realistic aspirations of winning a national championship, but the Blue Devils certainly figured to do better than this.
Duke's goal coming into the first round of the NCAA Championships was to make the 36-hole cut, but when the Blue Devils tee off today at noon, they have a lot of ground to make up.
Duke shot a 23-over, 311 yesterday at Hazeltine National Golf Course in Chaska, Minn., leaving it in 27th place out of 30 teams. The Blue Devils stand 22 strokes behind tournament-leading Oklahoma State, but more importantly, to finish in the top 15 and make the cut, Duke must pick up some 10 strokes.
"Things didn't go so well," coach Rod Myers said. "This was discouraging. This is a very demanding course. You can't play it out of the rough, and we missed fairways too many times. We were too often in deep rough or we had these great big things called trees in our way."
Along with the trees, Mother Nature was not too kind to the Blue Devils either. When the Blue Devils first arrived at the course it was 45 degrees, cloudy and windy.
But the sun came out as Duke reached the turn, and by the time the Blue Devils finished, it was 72 degrees. Still, as the weather grew calmer, Duke's drives did not.
"We lost control a little bit after the sun came
The course hosted the 1991 U.S. Open and plays very difficultly. The greens are very firm and they do not accept balls hit from the rough that do not have spin. Georgia Tech, the third-ranked team in the country, could not figure out the course, shooting a 26-over and currently stand one spot below Duke. Matt Kuchar of The Masters fame shot an 83.
But still, the Blue Devils struggled more than most and now find themselves in a pretty deep hole.
"We knew 300 was going to be a good score and if we were around 305 we would be in a pretty good position," Myers said. "But now it's going to require a really good score to make the cut. And to be honest, I'm not sure if we can do that on this course."
The Blue Devils were led by freshman Matt Krauss, who fired a 3-over 75, placing him in 48th place overall. Krauss was actually 1-under after the first 13 holes, but a bogey on 14 and a double bogey on 16 moved him out of the red.
"I was really pleased with Matt," Myers said. "He was going along, playing really well, then he got a double bogey on 16. Without question he had the most solid round. I thought he might shoot a 69-70 as well as he was playing and putting. But the shots he missed really hurt him."
Seniors Kyle Elfers and Marc Chatelain finished at 5-over and 6-over, respectively. Elfers struck the ball well, but he never got any birdies, instead recording five bogeys to go with 13 pars.
Mike Christensen, returning to his home state, was putting together a solid round through the first six holes. He stood 1-over-par when he approached the par-5 7th, the shortest par-5 on the course.
His tee shot went into the woods, and after he struggled to get it back on the fairway, he hit a shot from the deep rough that found the pond left of the green. When all was said and done, Christensen had a quadruple bogey and he would go on to finish with a 9-over 81.
"We all talked before the round and said we couldn't afford double bogeys. We didn't talk about quads," Myers said. "He just started to hurry and lost his concentration, but when you start throwing away four strokes at a time, it hurts a lot."
Meanwhile, Kevin Streelman, whose sensational performance in the Regionals propelled Duke to a fifth-place finish, lost his touch over the back nine, firing five bogeys and two double bogeys.
The sophomore finished the round at 10-over, but because only the four lowest scores count in collegiate golf, his score was not added to the Blue Devils' team performance.
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