LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The men's golf team came into this weekend's ACC championships with a specific goal: secure an NCAA tournament berth.
Unfortunately for the No. 24 Blue Devils, putting woes left them in seventh place behind two teams--North Carolina and Virginia--that coach Rod Myers felt they needed to beat to lock up a spot in next month's NCAA tournament.
The Blue Devils, led by 2-over performances from seniors Paul Tucker and Kevin Streelman, struggled to shoot plus-10 at the Disney Resort's relatively unthreatening Magnolia Course. Despite often windy conditions, four teams finished under par, but Duke was unable to take advantage of the course's generous greens.
"I'm not pleased, especially coming off the last [tournament's victory at Chapel Hill]," senior Paul Tucker said, despite shooting a team-low 71 Sunday. "The team putted terribly. It's frustrating when you hit the ball like a tour player and putt it like a 30-handicap."
No. 2 Georgia Tech won the team competition by eight strokes, shooting an impressive 19-under par for the weekend. The Yellow Jackets were led by star senior Bryce Molder, who shot a final round 66 to finish at 11-under. Molder finished two strokes back in the individual competition to Clemson's John Engler, who led the Tigers to second place.
Duke ended up just one stroke back of North Carolina and four back of No. 8 N.C. State. The Blue Devils played solid golf most of the weekend, including a 3-over first round and a final round score of 2-over. But Duke did not make enough birdies to threaten the leaders, as no Blue Devil shot higher than 76 or lower than 71.
"When the wind was up, it made the golf course more difficult," Myers said. "We didn't quite take advantage of the opportunities and get under par. That's the difference, everybody's shooting 73s and 74s and we needed to do a little better than that."
Myers was pleased with the team's play from tee to green, but said putting problems and a struggle with the final round's windy conditions led to the seventh-place finish. The Magnolia Course's Bermuda greens may have had an impact as well, with some players having difficulty adjusting to the long-grained putting surface.
"I was pleased with our effort, not pleased with our results," the coach said. "We needed to beat UNC and UVa, which we had been doing most all year long. But we were striking the ball very well."
The Blue Devils might be able to take comfort in the fact that the ACC tournament traditionally has as strong a field as any conference championship. This year was no exception, with three schools coming in ranked in the top 10; nonetheless, the Blue Devils had at least expected to beat the unranked Tar Heels and Cavaliers.
Now the NCAA seeding committee will have to look favorably on the Blue Devils' two tournament victories if they are to get a berth. Tucker emphasized that the Blue Devils' can beat top-10 participants Georgia Tech, Clemson and N.C. State if the team sinks a few more putts.
"I was close, nothing just really took shape out there," Tucker said. "For the team to finish seventh is really disappointing. The thing is, nobody on the team had a great week out here and it's hard to do well when that happens. We should still have a really good chance to make [the NCAAs] with our two wins."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.