Frank Sinatra called Chicago "one town that won't let you down. It's my kind of town." Well, the men's golf team certainly didn't come home disappointed, though it was Northwestern's town this week. The Wildcats blew away the second-place Blue Devils and the rest of the field as the Windom Memorial Classic wrapped up Tuesday at the Glen View Club in Glenview, Ill., a mere 20 miles from the Windy City.
Duke kept pace with the home team Wildcats through the first two rounds of the 13-team tournament and only trailed by five strokes heading into Tuesday's action. Northwestern, however, was on a roll all day, spoiling solid showings from Duke's Rob Beasley and consistent freshman Ryan Blaum with a 13-under 275 for the day and a final tally of 848, 25 shots better than the Blue Devils.
"They blew everybody out, but they just played such great golf doing it," head coach Rod Myers said. "When you look at a team shooting that low even when teams like us have guys firing in the low 70s, you know they had something special going. But for as young a team as we are, we're trying to feel our way out. So I was happy with second place."
As the Blue Devils settled into the back nine in the final round, it became clear that second was about the best they could finish. Standing at three-under par on the 13th hole and in a dogfight with Stanford, Duke's players were continuing with their strong fall season, but couldn't keep up with the strong play of NU's Tom Johnson. He currently stands at No. 10 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index and took individual honors with a 10-under 206.
One Blue Devil playing catch-up all day was junior Mike Castleforte. After firing a one-under 71 in the opening round and even at par heading into Tuesday, the Springboro, Ohio native found Chicago let him down with a local rule infraction. Already struggling with two straight bogeys, Castleforte sliced his Titleist Pro VI ball out of bounds on the 15th hole and had to replace it. But for accidentally grabbing a Pro VI-Star make of the ball from his bag, he was charged with two extra strokes for the next two holes, sinking Duke for the day.
Beasley, though, kept the Blue Devils afloat with a final round score of 70 thanks to a new focused approach and a strong putting game. The junior's total of 217 was good for 12th place, a robust 20 spots ahead of his previous individual best.
"Rob was the bright spot of the tournament in my mind," Myers said. "He's been a question mark because we feel he's been working so hard on his game and on his emotions that we've been thinking when it could come together, and it almost did this week."
Super-freshman Ryan Blaum seems to have developed a steady game already. Following up his ninth-place finish at the Bank of Tennessee tournament two weeks ago with an even-par 216 at Glen View, he has applied his "no worries" approach to become a leader and the standout of a stellar freshman class.
"Being a freshman, you can't expect to do much because you're just adjusting to the college atmosphere and college golf," he said. "And when you come in here to such a great team, you have to do well to even be part of that team. So to come in and count in every round so far and to be under or around par, it's just great."
The Blue Devils look to continue their great fall results and play the part of Old Blue Eyes, finally welcoming the competition to their kind of town at the Duke Golf Classic in Durham starting Oct. 21.
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