Dan Brooks' team of six golfers includes two freshmen and two sophomores, but the 17th-year coach can be confident that his team's youth won't hinder its run at another banner.
At last month's NCAA Fall Preview, the rest of the nation learned this lesson as well, when the second-ranked Blue Devils stormed to a first-place finish, defeating many elite teams, including defending national champion Arizona.
The Blue Devils hope to build on this success as they travel to the Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill this weekend to compete in the Tar Heel Invitational, where Duke seeks its fourth consecutive team title.
While the competition is not as strong as at the Fall Preview, the tournament field includes No. 4 Tennessee and No. 6 Wake Forest.
The tournament also boasts three of the nation's top-10 golfers. Marta Prieto of Wake Forest and Young-A Yang of Tennessee are ranked fourth and sixth, respectively, while Duke's Virada Nirapathpongporn is ninth.
But the field lacks the Pac-10 powerhouses that Brooks believes will be Duke's primary competition for the national championship.
Still, Brooks does not think that the absence of these teams will diminish his team's competitive fire.
"All of our players have played well on this course," he said. "The other teams that are on the golf course shouldn't make any difference. I think it does sometimes, but our job, our task is to get to where that is an insignificant fact."
Brooks added that in addition to attempting to disregard the names of the other teams in the tournament, his team also avoids trying to set a specific scoring goal.
"We don't really set out to beat any certain teams or [to achieve] a target score," he said. "We stay focused... on the process of playing better, on our own goals, on things we can control."
Another possible detriment to Duke's overall concentration could be mid-terms, but Brooks again dismissed such a concern.
"We've got to be really mentally tough," he said. "This is a tough place to go to school and be a competitive golfer. We don't let that be an excuse."
Confident of both his team's ability to play well and ignore a multitude of distractions, Brooks looks forward to this weekend's tournament.
"The trick in golf anyway is to learn to play your own game," he said. "Then play the golf course, and not pay attention to what's going on around you."
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