The reality is that most rookie golfers are not good enough to err in the way that freshman Blue Devil Yaroslav Merkulov did.
“It was kind of a brain fart,” Merkulov said.
The incident that he referred to occurred at the inaugural Rod Myers Invitational at the Duke University Golf Club Oct. 10-11. Merkulov shot a three-under 69 and a two-under 70 in the second and third rounds, and he would have won the individual tournament championship had he not mistakenly signed for a 68 after he posted a first-round 69. This error disqualified him from individual contention.
Despite this unfortunate and costly mistake, Merkulov has quickly established himself as an elite college golfer. He finished in a tie for seventh at the Fighting Illini Invitational Sept. 17-19 and came in a tie for 13th at the Wolfpack Intercollegiate Oct. 4-5. Though the transition to college is often difficult for golfers, he currently leads the team with an average score of 70.6 per round, compared to the team average of 72.2.
“Sometimes maybe high school matches are played on shorter courses, and the college courses that we’ve played on can be challenging and long,” head coach Jamie Green said. “But Yaroslav, because he’s played in some amateur tournaments, has succeeded especially because he hits the ball plenty long enough.”
For Merkulov, one of the main differences has not been the length of the courses, but rather the length of the season.
“I’m just not used to playing this deep into the season,” Merkulov said. “I’m from New York, so the golf season is over by October and [at Duke] we’re still playing into the first week of November. I’m just curious to see how I react to that.”
Much of his success, as Green noted, comes from his driver. Yet, one of his main strengths is that his power comes without sacrificing accuracy. He is currently ranked 18th in the NCAA with 83.6% of fairways hit, slightly behind sophomore Brinson Paolini, who leads the team and is 17th in the country with a rate of 83.9%.
Merkulov’s strong play has caught the attention of his teammates.
“It’s been great in terms of the team, to have success early on in the season especially in a freshman,” senior Wes Roach said. “It motivates everybody to beat him in practice and in tournaments.”
Even though he has played the best golf out of anybody on the team so far this season, Merkulov still has significant room to improve certain facets of his game. More important, however, is his cognizance of his shortcomings.
“Definitely [I need to improve] my short game. I was looking at my stats with the coaches and whatnot, and it’s surprising,” Merkulov said. “In total short game stats I was ranked in the 600s out of 800 college golfers, so that has to improve if I’m going to improve my scores.”
Nonetheless, what could be most critical to his success may lie outside his physical tools and have more to do with his mental ones.
“On the golf course he’s really mature,” Roach said. “There’s not much bad you can say about the guy right now.”
Indeed, his composure both on and off the course is evidenced by not only his success, but also by the way he managed his scorecard failure, according to his coach.
“He handled it like a champion,” Green said. “He had the positive vibe of playing a terrific day of 36-hole golf.”
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