For a program used to being loaded with juniors and seniors, this season’s lineup is noticeably different for the Blue Devils. With only one senior, two juniors and a sophomore on the roster at the beginning of the school year, Duke knew it was going to rely on the play of its four-man incoming class for success in 2010.
So far, so good for the Blue Devils.
With the emergence of freshmen Julian Suri and Brinson Paolini as regular competitors, Duke has seen steady results at the team level throughout the year. While individual results have varied, the team has finished in the top three in three out of six events in the spring season, while finishing no lower than eighth in team competition.
Suri has shown flashes of what should be a bright future throughout the year, bursting out of the gate with a sixth-place finish at the SunTrust Gator Invitational in February. In his most recent outing, Suri tied for second at the N.C. State Wolfpack Intercollegiate in Raleigh, bested only by teammate Adam Long.
No matter the fluctuations of his younger teammates over the course of the year, Long has remained a steady hand as he plays the role of the lone senior for the Blue Devils. Along with his win in Raleigh, Long has added three other top-20 finishes to his resume this spring.
Even with his individual victory, Long stressed the importance of making success contagious for the whole team—especially with the ACC tournament right around the corner.
“The timing of [the win] couldn’t have been better heading into ACCs,” Long said. “Personally, as an individual thing, I think it’s great. And as a team, having someone on your team win kind of pushes the other guys and gives the other guys some confidence—just knowing that we play together every day, and having one guy win, you say, ‘Oh hey, I can win.’”
As Duke seeks to notch its first team victory of the season, Long emphasized that the Blue Devils will need to find ways to score better early in tournaments.
Duke has made a habit of starting off slowly this season, with high first-round scores that drop over the course of the tournament as the Blue Devils fight their way up the leaderboard.
“I guess it’s kind of like basketball,” Long said. “Our basketball team was a second-half team this year, and it’s the same kind of thing where our second and third rounds tend to be better—we get better as the tournament goes along.”
At N.C. State, Duke opened with a first-round 296, which then dropped to 290 and 281 for the second and third rounds, respectively. While that meant a second-place team finish, the Blue Devils were only seven strokes behind tournament champion North Carolina.
Duke will use the experience from the Wolfpack Intercollegiate as a dress rehearsal for this weekend’s ACC Championship in New London, N.C. The field in Raleigh featured nine of the 11 ACC squads—only Boston College and Clemson were absent.
If the younger players can find their comfort zone early, the Blue Devils could be a force to be reckoned with in the later rounds. Long said that the course sets up well for Duke to shed its early-round struggles.
“The first hole is a par-5, it’s really reachable [in two strokes] and the fourth hole is also a par-5,” Long said. “So there’s two par-5s in the first four holes where you can really get ahead of the field if you can get off to a good start.
“I don’t think that there’s any one team that’s a frontrunner or definitely going to win or anything like that, but I know one thing—we’ll definitely be in the mix.”
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