The Blue Devils played three consistent rounds of golf to cap off their third straight tournament finishing under par.
Duke entered the final round of the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate in second place with an opportunity to capture its third straight tournament victory. Despite a two-under-par round Tuesday at Bulls Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, S.C., the Blue Devils could not make a move up the leaderboard, finishing in seventh place with a team score of 857.
“We played really solid golf the first couple of rounds and to be honest with you, we played well today for most of the round. When we go back and look at the scorecards, I think our five guys made 23 birdies today,” Duke head coach Jamie Green said. “South Carolina and New Mexico, teams we were playing with, I think they made 22 and 24 birdies. It really wasn’t a matter of how many birdies we made as a group, we just gave too many shots back.”
Freshman Adam Wood and junior Motin Yeung carried the Blue Devils during the 54-hole tournament, finishing tied for 19th at two-under-par after the three rounds. Wood turned in standout performances Sunday and Tuesday but turned in a four-over-par 76 in Monday’s second round that kept him from placing higher on the leaderboard. Yeung played consistent golf all tournament, posting a one-over-par 73 in the opening round before firing back-to-back under-par rounds to close out the tournament.
An impressive team outing on the links Monday put Duke in contention to bring home the hardware. Competing against a field that included five other top-50 programs and two top-10 squads, the Blue Devils turned in the lowest round of the day—a three-under-par 285—and trailed No. 5 South Carolina by just four strokes.
By virtue of its strong first 36 holes, Duke played in the last grouping of the day with the Lobos and Gamecocks. The late start put the Blue Devils in the thick of the strongest winds of the afternoon that affected their round. Wood and Yeung were the only two Duke golfers to shoot under par Tuesday.
“We knew the wind was going to get a little bit heavier as the day wore on and that’s what happened. You try to play your golf so you can be in the last pairing—you want to be in contention to win,” Green said. “If you’re playing at the level of the top three, you’re going to be in the last pairing, and we were, which meant for probably an hour or so we were out in some of the strongest wind of the day.... We had a couple hiccups and bogeys coming in.”
South Carolina was able to solve the challenges posed by the elements, winning the tournament by 11 strokes thanks to a 17-under-par final day.
Wood carded a near-mistake free round Sunday to get his tournament off to a strong start. The Zionsville, Ind., native birdied two of his first four holes and his first three on the back nine, finishing at four-under-par after a lone bogey on the 17th hole.
After an up-and-down second round that included four bogeys on the back nine, Wood rebounded with a strong Tuesday performance. The freshman birdied six holes on the front nine before suffering a double-bogey on the 11th green. Rather than let the setback derail his confidence, the rookie returned to form immediately.
“He hit an awful lot of good golf shots,” Green said. “When he did have a bump in the road, some of his best golf was the very next hole or the very next shot. He made a terrific birdie on 12 and 13 after making double-bogey on 11. That says a lot about him and I think it says a lot about our team.”
Senior Turner Southey-Gordon finished tied for 22nd at one-under-par, and sophomore Alexander Matlari and freshman Jake Shuman rounded out the Blue Devil lineup tied for 43rd at four-over-par.
Duke did not record a top-three finish in the fall, but it seems to have turned a corner in the spring. In their last three events, the Blue Devils are a combined 11-under-par, tied for first at the Bandon Dunes Championship and won their own Blue Devil Spring Shootout.
“In the fall we stumbled a little bit, but we’re bouncing back pretty well in the spring,” Green said. “They were in contention going into the final round and really they were right there in the mix through half to two-thirds of the day today. You can kind of sense it, smell it, you know you’re close.... They’ve worked hard to get themselves into position where they’re contending for wins, so I’m excited for them.”
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