Quag's Blog

One of the best basketball recruiting blogs out there is ZAGSBLOG, written by Adam Zagoria, a former colleague. What relevance does this have to Duke, Ben? Not much, although he does sometimes mention Duke recruits and it's a shameless plug. But it does provide an easy segue into a series of diary entries from Blue Devil golfer Michael Quagliano at the U.S. Open in Torrey Pines. He's telling his story to mgagolf.org, and The Chronicle will be printing excerpts tomorrow. Call it Quag's Blog.

Quagliano was sidelined in Duke's season with an injury, playing in just the first tournament of the year way back in September. But he made the U.S. Open through a sectional qualifier, and now he's playing in SoCal, along with former Blue Devils Joe Ogilvie and Kevin Streelman. Both texted and called Quagliano when he qualified and the Duke trio might play a practice round before the tournament starts tomorrow.

Through Monday, the Duke senior had played 27 holes and hadn't scored worse than a bogey by managing to stay out of the hellacious U.S. Open rough. But other parts of the course are unique, too, namely the greenside bunkers and fairways, which have prompted a change in Quagliano's approach:

"Major development of the day: I'm thinking about playing with metal spikes for the first time. The reason is that the grass is cut so perfectly and I want to have as much stability and traction as possible. I'm also learning that I definitely need to stay out of the greenside bunkers as much as possible. With all the new sand they put in, just about any ball that you hit into those bunkers ends up plugged."

We'll keep you updated with Quagliano's progress throughout the week and, should he stay out of the rough, over the weekend.

--by Ben Cohen