In its first competition of the season, Duke came out of the gates with an inspired opening round performance but showed it still has some work to do.
The Blue Devils started off their season in Kiawah Island, S.C. at the storied Ocean Course with a 54-hole, three-day tournament where they placed seventh, shooting a 25-over 889 and finishing 39 strokes behind eventual winner South Florida.
Freshman Adam Wood shot an impressive 2-under 214 in his first collegiate tournament and tied for eighth place, just six shots behind the South Florida’s Chase Koepka who claimed first. Duke head coach Jamie Green saw the tournament as a learning experience for the team and emphasized the beneficial effect of playing on the difficult and unpredictable Ocean Course.
“As a coach…I’m just trying to get their games out there to the best golf courses we can find so that they can assess their own games and see how much closer we’re getting to being an elite team,” Green said. “You can’t just snap your fingers and change 30 strokes overnight…so for us it’s a matter of [identifying] the controllable things that we can do something about.”
That future looks promising after strong showings from Wood and fellow freshman Jake Shuman. Shuman put together two stellar opening rounds and found himself tied for 11th before Sunday’s finale.
A rough final round in which the Boston native bogeyed four holes in a row before collecting three double-bogeys on the back nine dropped him to 33rd. Nevertheless, the freshmen duo showed a commendable level of poise in their first official event as Blue Devils with their strong opening rounds.
Wood in particular demonstrated the skills that helped make him a state champion golfer last year in Indiana, as he adjusted well to the increased difficulty level of a college fairway. He started off his Duke career with a birdie on the first hole Friday en route to finishing the weekend with 11 birdies. His overall score of 3-under on par 4 holes was good for the second best performance on par 4 holes for any player at the tournament. Wood’s ability to keep errors to a minimum was also on full display this weekend—he only shot above par on seven holes through the entire weekend, something even the overall leader Koepka couldn’t manage to do.
“He’s a very tactical, calculating, and intelligent player,” Green said of Wood. “He doesn’t try to push the envelope…when the course makes it risky.... He really puts himself in a position to shoot a good score on every hole.”
The veterans of the team played consistently through the three rounds, and helped keep the team in the top 10 at the tournament. Last season’s leading Blue Devil Motin Yeung spent the first two rounds shaking off some rust after a sore back kept him out of practice earlier in the week. He found his form Sunday, finishing 1-under par and climbing 20 spots on the leaderboard to finish 31st.
Senior Michael Ricuarte shot an 11-over to finish 41st and was followed by sophomore Max Greyserman and senior Turner Southey-Gordon, who rounded out the team by tying for 45th. Aside from Yeung, the returners played their best golf Friday and helped Duke rank third at the end of the first round .
Next week, the Blue Devils take on a host of ACC and SEC opponents at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Collegiate Challenge Cup in Nashville, Tenn. As Duke begins facing titans like Georgia Tech and Clemson, the level of competition will ramp up. Green, however, seemed unconcerned and instead hammered home his dedication to constant improvement all across the lineup.
“As I’ve told these guys—and you hear this over and over and over—in our game, you’re not playing against the other teams,” Green said. “I’ve coached teams that have won tournaments by 10 or 15 shots and still we walk away from that saying ‘How could we have done a little bit better?’ So right now, that’s the goal.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.