A record-setting season for Duke came to an end Saturday.
Needing to finish in the top five to advance to the NCAA Championships, the No. 7 Blue Devils finished tied for seventh in the NCAA Tempe Regional with a 10-over-par 850. Playing at home on the par-70 ASU Karsten Golf Course, unranked Arizona State earned the last advancing berth by posting an 832 to finish fifth. No. 4 UCLA won the tournament with a 30-under-par 810 after leading the all three days.
“The initial sting of not advancing doesn't feel good,” Duke head coach Jamie Green said. “We just didn't play as well as we could play today and other teams did just that.”
Seeded second in the Regional, Duke began the final day tied for fifth with Arizona State at two-under-par. But the team’s 292 was the second-highest Saturday score of any of the 14 teams and dropped the Blue Devils out of contention to advance. By contrast, the Sun Devils closed the tournament with a six-under-par 274 to advance.
Saturday also marked the final day of four seniors' collegiate careers—Adam Sumrall, Julian Suri, Brinson Paolini and Tim Gornik. Sumrall and Paolini both finished under par as individuals and earned top-20 finishes in the Regional. Suri’s closing 81 dropped him into a tie for 63rd, and Gornik was not in the lineup this past week.
Paolini, this year’s Byron Nelson Award recipient, finished the year with the second-lowest scoring average in Duke history, both in terms of a season and a career. He finished in the top-20 in all 11 tournaments he played in this season.
Suri, an All-American in 2012, had both the Blue Devil’s best individual finish and lowest single round, tying for first at the Rod Myers Invitational in October and posting a 66 in the second round of the ACC Tournament last month.
“I want to applaud and thank our senior class. What they have meant to Duke golf, Duke athletics and Duke University is immeasurable,” Green said. “They contributed to record setting performances as a group. Individually I know Brinson and Julian are going to have their names etched in a lot of record books.”
Among the records the Blue Devils set as a team this year was the mark for most victories in a season, which they broke when they gathered their fifth victory of the year at the ACC Championships. They also set a school record with 18 rounds of even-par or better, the final two of which came in the first two rounds of the Tempe Regional.
“I hate to have our guys feel the way that they do right now when they have had such a good year and played so many good rounds of golf,” Green said. “Anybody who competes in athletics, at one point or another, feels this.”
In addition to the three seniors, junior Austin Cody and freshman Mads Soegaard rounded out this past week’s lineup for Duke. Cody, playing under the weather for much of the week, finished the Regional tied for 63rd with a 13-over-par 223. Soegaard posted a 215 to finish tied for 41st.
Greg Eason of Central Florida put up a 198 to win medalist honors by four strokes.
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