The men's golf team continued its roller coaster season in Charlottesville, Va., this weekend, and the results were not pretty.
Once again plagued by inconsistency, the Blue Devils struggled to an 11th-place finish in the two-day, 12-team Keswick Club Cavalier Classic.
Duke finished the tournament with a score of 890, 25 strokes back from co-champions Virginia and Southern Methodist.
Senior Justin Klein was a bright spot in the standings, finishing in a tie for third place overall at 144. Klein struggled earlier this season, and he was hoping to reverse that trend in Charlottesville.
"Justin played real well for us in the individual competition," Duke head coach Rod Myers said. "It is important for us to have him back playing well."
Other Duke players were not quite as fortunate. Senior Danny Brawley, junior Jason Buha and senior Joe Oglivie finished in a tie for 36th place overall at 152.
"We had a rough weekend," Buha said. "For some reason we couldn't get rolling. We had a few too many bogies and not enough birdies."
Sophomore Todd Hill rounded out the scoring for the Blue Devils with a score of 155 for 48th place overall.
"Consistency is our problem," Buha said. "We know that we are a real good team, but we just couldn't string it together for three straight rounds."
The Cavalier Classic presented an unique opportunity for the Blue Devils, since a slightly altered team format was used. The first two rounds on Saturday were played normally as the four best overall scores were taken from each of the five-men teams.
Sunday's third round was team play--all five teammates played together. The four top scores on each hole were counted towards the team competition.
"Each team feels a lot of pressure [in the altered format]," Myers said. "It becomes a team game, not an individual contest."
Myers held a team meeting on Saturday night to discuss Sunday's third round.
"But we seemed to be the only team apart from Georgia Tech that struggled with the different format," Myers said. "We ended up missing too many putts. Apart from Joe's and Jason's eight birdies, no one else made any."
Duke has played three tournaments in as many weeks, and fatigue could be a factor. The Blue Devils now have two weeks off before participating in the Northwestern Windon Memorial in Chicago.
"These past few weeks have been wearing us out," Buha said. "Maybe two weeks off will give us some rest, and we'll be ready for Chicago."
Myers agreed and speculated that overscheduling could be an issue. But when it comes right down to it, the scorecard does not lie.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.