Despite surging back from a five-stroke deficit Monday, the Blue Devils only came away with a frustrating tie in the Duke Classic.
Duke scored 22-under-par, sharing the title with Tennessee-Chattanooga at the Duke University Golf Club.
"I don't think we played our best this week," senior Michael Schachner said. "I don't even know if you call this a win. I don't really get why people don't have a playoff, and I would have liked to win this one instead of tie."
Entering the 18th hole, Schachner believed he and the Blue Devils were still in position to win outright.
When the Blue Devil senior and the Mocs' Jonathan Hodge reached the final green together, Schachner faced a 25-foot putt while Hodge had a short six-footer to put the pressure on the Blue Devils. Hodge missed his attempt, and Schachner two-putted for an apparent victory. But when the teams' cards were officially counted at the end of the round, a two-stroke penalty assessed by the rules official to Duke's Matthew Pierce on the eighth hole gave the team a share of the title instead of an outright win.
"[Head coach O.D. Vincent] told me that if his math was right, we were up one, so I figured that if [Hodge] made it and I two-putted we'd be up one, so I gave it a good run," Schachner said.
Schachner's performance on the 18th capped a day in which the Blue Devils had come back from a five-stroke deficit before the turn. Duke, led by Schachner, sophomore Adam Long and junior Clark Klaasen-who fired a team-best 67 Monday-rallied to take a three-shot lead after 14. The Blue Devils played holes nine through 14 at an impressive 16-under-par in the third and final round of the tournament.
"We turned at minus-1 today, so playing the back nine as well as we did was phenomenal," Vincent said. "We played holes No. 12 through 15 very well and that was nice to see."
Individually, Chattanooga's Hodge won the tournament with a 12-under 204. Duke was well-represented on the individual leaderboard, though, as Long finished third, Schachner fourth and Klaasen in a tie for 11th. Long carded a 70 in the final round.
The sophomore was 1-under on the front nine and was set on scoring similarly on the back to take a shot at the top of the leaderboard.
"All of a sudden, I made birdies on 11, 12 and 14 so now I'm exceeding expectations," Long said. "My goal this weekend was to have a chance to win the tournament with nine holes left and I did, so I can't be too disappointed."
The Blue Devils return to the links Oct. 27 when they travel to Greensboro, Ga. for the GCAA Collegiate Match Play Championship.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.