It was a weekend of championships for junior Brinson Paolini.
After claiming the individual title at the River Landing Intercollegiate Saturday in Wallace, N.C., Paolini hit the road with his father to attend the final day of The Masters in Augusta, Ga. The Blue Devil has attended at least one round at The Masters, be it a practice round or a championship round, since he was one year old.
“My dad is definitely more excited about [the Masters] than today,” Paolini said. “And I kind of am too.”
Paolini sat in 26th place after the first day of play but fired a final round 6-under-par 66 to claim the title and help guide Duke to a runner-up team finish. After shooting a 1-over-par 73 in the opening round, the Virginia Beach, Va. native rallied on the second day of play and ultimately finished the tournament with an 8-under 208 for a one-shot victory of Liberty’s Niklas Lindstrom.
“It turned out to be a great weekend,” Paolini said. “I stayed really patient and tried to always stay in the moment. [On day two] I got on a roll and rode it for as long as I could.... It was definitely a test of patience.”
Due to bad weather on day one of the tournament, the players were held to just 27 holes instead of the intended 36, making individual standings difficult to judge since play had been paused mid-round. Without specific knowledge of where he stood relative to his competition, Paolini focused on his individual game, which led to him to his first ever collegiate title.
“Brinson has played a lot of good golf for Duke,” head coach Jamie Green said. “He helped put us in a position in that final round to make a charge [at the lead], but unfortunately we couldn’t get enough guys to help.”
Duke finished the tournament in second place to Liberty, who claimed the team title by finishing nine shots ahead of the Blue Devils.
“They are a really good team,” Green said. “They’ve got a lot of talent over there…. We didn’t finish second to a weak team at all. I was proud of our guys and happy they got focused and realized what things they needed to to to tidy up their games on day two, but unfortunately we couldn’t make up enough ground.”
The Blue Devils moved up the board from fifth place on day one to finish the tournament in second place overall. Junior Julian Suri finished the tournament in 12th place with a two-under-par 214, and senior Spencer Anderson tied for 13th place with a one-under-par 215.
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