The men's golf team is right where it wants to be entering this weekend's Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Sort of.
The Blue Devils will go into the championships fresh off a ninth-place finish last weekend at the 12-team Ping Classic in nearby Cary. Duke's performance in Cary, as well as in most of its tournaments this spring, has been mediocre. But the Blue Devils found themselves in a similar situation last season, and they went on a surprisingly strong postseason run that culminated in a 10th-place finish at the NCAA championships.
In 1993, Duke had a terrible performance at the Ping tournament, played better at the ACCs and then found its stroke in the NCAA regionals and finals. Head coach Rod Myers hopes this spring's last few competitions yield similar results.
"They're kind of similar," Myers said. "Our low point was at the Ping tournament. We never got it together. But we seemed to get it together right after that.
"After what we did last year I think this team is capable of being even better, but we're running out of time."
If Duke is to capitalize on its few remaining tournaments of the spring and qualify for NCAA competition, the Blue Devils will need to improve upon their recent struggles.
Other than winning the East Carolina tournament one month ago, the Blue Devils have struggled in tournaments with strong fields. Duke finished in the top half of just two of five tournaments this spring, including a last-place finish at the Carpet Capital Classic in Georgia earlier this month. Myers was only marginally pleased with his team's golf at the Ping Classic.
"My feeling was that we played OK," Myers said. "We have a lot of room for improvement."
Duke's most consistent golfer this spring has been sophomore Joe Ogilvie, who has been the low man on the Duke squad four times in six competitions. Ogilvie has two top-10 finishes and two top-20 finishes this spring.
Senior Mike Muehr leads the team in stroke average at 74.5, but he has struggled with consistency. Muehr has three top-10 finishes this year, but two of them came last fall and the other was at the weaker ECU tournament. Muehr shot 80-79-76 at the Ping tournament and finished in a tie for 58th place, the lowest finish on the team.
Duke's performance as a team has mirrored Muehr's up-and-down year. The Blue Devils started strong last fall with two straight second-place finishes, but have followed with showings of 15-7-10-1-9-16-9.
"I feel faintly positive going into this weekend," Myers said. "We're still not at the peak of our game. We need to take another step forward to get there."
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