All season long, coach Rod Myers believed that if his top three golfers all played well at the same time, the other two golfers would fill in the holes and make the 19th-ranked Blue Devils tough to beat.
This weekend, the men's golf team proved Myers right as it led wire-to-wire at the Nelson Invitational, which was hosted by Stanford at the 6,786-yard, par-71 Stanford Golf Club in Palo Alto, Calif. Duke's four-shot victory over No. 10 N.C. State closed out the team's fall season.
"It's great to end on such a high note," Myers said. "But it's sad that the season has to end now because the guys are really starting to come into their own.
"After playing five tournaments in six weeks, the guys are ready to take a well-deserved break and become students again."
The Blue Devils were led by Leif Olson, who fired rounds of 68, 71 and 72 to finish in second place at 2-under par, three strokes back of individual medalist Steve Sokol from Florida Southern. Olson led the event after two rounds, but Sokol's final-round 64 propelled him to the win.
Olson had been unable to regain his stellar form from a season ago and had not finished higher than 29th until two weeks ago at the Duke Classic, where he tied for seventh. But it was only a matter of time until the sophomore got his game back, as he showed this week.
"This fall I have been struggling a lot on the greens and with my ball-striking," Olson said. "This weekend I hit a lot of greens in regulation and I hit the ball very solidly. This combination led to my strong finish."
During the fall season, Duke has been known to get off to slow starts and then claw its way back in the later rounds to salvage a fifth- or sixth-place finish.
This week, the Blue Devils were determined not to play themselves out of the tournament on the first day. They fired a team-total of 280 to take a four-shot lead at 4-under par after the first day.
One day later, not even harsh winds and heavy rains could stop the Blue Devils from extending their lead over Duke Classic winner N.C. State by two shots.
"Since we have been getting off to slow starts in the past, I was concerned with how the guys would handle having the lead for the first time after Day 1 and then again after Day 2," Myers said. "But the guys stayed loose all week and handled the pressure like true professionals."
Duke was able to hold on to the lead the final day thanks in part to the play of junior Brandon LaCroix, who rebounded from difficult rounds of 77 and 83 to shoot a final-round 72.
"Brandon's final round was really big," Myers said. "He's been having a tough fall season, but with Matt [Krauss], Leif and Kevin [Streelman] playing well, he was able to relax a little more and post a really good score when it counted."
Olson wasn't the only Blue Devil to crack the top 10 this week. Krauss, a junior, has played consistent golf all season and continued that this week by shooting rounds of 71, 72 and 71 to finish in a tie for fourth at 1-over par.
Over the past year and a half, Krauss has been Duke's top golfer, winning at the ACC Championships and receiving honorable-mention All-America honors in 1999. This fall, Krauss, who is ranked 26th in the nation, has finished in the top 10 in four out of Duke's five tournaments.
Duke's solid play this week can also be attributed to the play of seniors Streelman and Paul Tucker. Streelman was one of the reasons for the Blue Devils' fast start in the first round, when he fired a 2-under 69. Streelman would go on to shoot rounds of 74 and 77 to finish in a tie for 27th at 7-over par.
Tucker fired three solid rounds of 72, 76 and 74 to finish in a tie for 36th at 9-over par.
"This was a really solid event for us from start to finish," Myers said. "We have had difficulty playing well at the Nelson as a team and beating N.C. State in the past few years. We just got better with every tournament all fall."
With this win, Duke will have a lot of confidence heading into the spring season, which opens Feb. 19-20 in Jacksonville, Fla. at the Mercedes-Benz Invitational.
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