The Blue Devils struggled mightily in their final event of the fall, but now have four months to improve before their spring opener.
Duke finished 12th out of 12 teams at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate at Royal Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas Tuesday with a 54-hole score of 70-over-par. Although the Blue Devils finished in the top seven in their previous two starts, they were never able to find a rhythm on the 7,068-yard, par-71 course.
“We got on the bad side of the ledger and really didn’t make enough putts to scratch and claw our way out of it,” head coach Jamie Green said. “There were a few too many times that all of our guys were having to scramble too much. We put ourselves in jail a little bit too many times.”
Although Duke’s score was extremely high, none of the 12 teams in the field had much success on the difficult layout, as the winning score was 15-over-par and only one team shot an under-par round during the two-day event. Teams played the first two rounds Monday and the final round Tuesday.
The tournament also used a unique format in which the top-five scores from six-man lineups were used. Normally, the top-four scores from five-man lineups are used.
“We made it very difficult,” Green said. “[But] the golf course had some new greens put in and they were quite firm. The first day the wind was blowing between 15 and 25 [miles per hour] all day, so the scores just overall were pretty high.”
The round that did Duke in the most was the second, during which the Blue Devils accumulated a team-score of 32-over-par, by far the worst round for any team during the week.
After anchoring the Blue Devil lineup in their first four starts, freshmen Adam Wood and Jake Shuman had by far their most disappointing events of their young careers.
Wood carded rounds of 74, 79 and 76 to finish 56th at 13-over-par and despite bouncing back with a final-round 73, Shuman still only finished tied for 37th at 11-over-par after shooting nine-over-par for his first 36 holes.
The duo will look to continue adjusting to the collegiate game and pro-style courses during the offseason and put the disappointing start behind them. Wood and Shuman combined for four top-20 finishes and two top-10 starts throughout five fall tournaments.
Senior Turner Southey-Gordon provided one of the few bright spots for Duke in the final round, shooting 72 to card the best round for a Blue Devil during the event. Southey-Gordon tied with Shuman in 37th at 11-over-par as the duo paced Duke.
“We talked [Monday] night as a team about being a little more confident out there, trying to hit some good golf shots and being more aggressive,” Southey-Gordon said. “[In general], we kind of struggled. We’ve had a lot of golf recently. I know we’re looking forward to the offseason.”
Senior Michael Ricaurte—who finished tied for 11th at the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth Oct. 6—never got going in his return to Texas, finishing tied for 50th at 14-over-par after failing to break 75 in each of the three rounds.
Sophomores Andrew Bieber and Alexander Matlari made their first starts in Duke’s team lineup and also never got going. Bieber finished tied for 63rd after three rounds of 78 and Matlari finished 71st out of 72 competitors after opening with rounds of 82 and 83 before a final-round 75.
The Blue Devils will look to hone in on the individual aspects of the game that keep holding them up as they enter the offseason, and won’t return to the course until Feb. 28 for the John Hayt Invitational at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
The course hosted the PGA Tour’s Players Championship for 64 years before the event moved to nearby TPC Sawgrass, and will be another demanding test for Duke’s young squad. The Blue Devils are hoping by the time the ACC Championship rolls around in late April, they will be ready to improve on last year’s 10th-place finish.
“Guys are trying to not hit bad shots,” Green said. “That’s just not the way you want to play golf. We all want to take some responsibility. I’m going to take a lot of that, in terms of the mindset. That will be our aim in the offseason, to make sure that guys know their games and play aggressively. [Also], the bottom line is we’ve got to make more putts.”
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