In its first team tournament of the year, Duke managed to keep pace with some of the best teams in the country and finished in fifth place at the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate in Jonesborough, Tenn.
The Blue Devils finished the three-day event at 5-over par, eight strokes behind winner Tennessee. The ACC, well-represented at The Ridges Golf and Country Club, had teams finish third and fourth—Virginia and Virginia Tech ended up in those spots—along with Duke in the top five.
Senior Adam Long and sophomore Wes Roach played the best golf of the weekend for the Blue Devils. Both finished the event tied for 16th on the individual leaderboard at even par. Long saved his best for last, shooting a 2-under 70 Sunday. Roach. meanwhile, opened up brightly Friday, carding a 4-under 68, but faltered Saturday with a 71 to fall off the individual pace. Roach was especially pleased with his play the first day.
“Overall, I struck the ball really well and hit a lot of fairways and greens.” Roach said Friday. “The greens that I did miss I was able to get up and down to save par. Hopefully I can keep hitting the ball the way I did today and keep making some putts.”
Freshmen Brinson Paolini and Julian Suri also did well in their first collegiate action. Suri played his best round Sunday with a score of 3-under, and Paolini finished at 3-over par for the tournament.
Duke sat in fourth place at the end of Day One, but fell back to 11th after a tough stretch Saturday during the second round. The team recovered well on the final day of action, though, to vault back up the leaderboard to fifth.
The Blue Devils hit the links this weekend in Greensboro, N.C. at the UNCG Brigestone Collegiate. Head coach Jamie Green was in charge at UNC-Greensboro before accepting the Duke job last year.
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