Coming off their first win of the season, the Blue Devils managed to bring some of the magic they found in Brandon, Ore., back to Durham.
Duke claimed its second straight victory in the Blue Devil Spring Shootout at at the Duke University Golf Club Sunday, shooting a 3-under par 285 to best second-place finisher Coastal Carolina by 10 strokes.
“In our game, especially when there’s no live scoring, you don’t really know how the other teams are playing,” head coach Jamie Green said to GoDuke.com. “You know who you are playing with and you kind of observe their games, but you just try to play the golf course the best you can, and that’s what our guys did really well today. We’ve had some rough weather and haven’t played this golf course very much the last month or so, but I think that’s all the more reason I was really pleased, and I think they ought to be awfully proud for having a good round out there today.”
The last time the Blue Devils hit the links, they tied for first at the Brandon Championships thanks to a solid overall team performance. Duke received the same kind of holistic success once again Sunday, as senior Motin Yeung claimed first place with a four-under par 68. Turner Southey-Gordon, Alexander Matlari, Jake Shuman and Michael Ricaurte all joined Yeung in the top 10.
Coming off a disappointing finish at the Brandon Dunes Championship—Yeung tied with Shurman and Wood at the Brandon Dunes Championship for 33rd after shooting a one-under 71 in the opening round and five-over 77 in the second—the Beijing native claimed his first tournament championship Sunday. Yeung notched five birdies and 12 pars en route to the first-place finish—the first of his career.
“This morning on the range warming up, I actually didn’t feel quite well with my body,” Yeung said to GoDuke.com. “I was sick earlier this week and didn’t feel 100 percent. I knew I could post some score that would count, but I didn’t expect something this low. When I got out there, I was just focused shot-by-shot and just trying to play well the shot in front of me. I ended up hitting the ball pretty well, a lot better than I expected, and made a lot of good putts for birdie.”
The event was a one-day, 18-hole event and featured the Blue Devils and 14 other squads—Alabama State, Bryant, Coastal Carolina, Cornell, Elon, Francis Marion, George Mason, Indiana, Manhattan, Marshall, Navy, N.C. Central, Villanova and Wagner.
Filling out the Duke roster for Sunday’s event was Adam Wood, Shurman, Matlari and Southey-Gordon. Four other Blue Devils—Ricaurte, Max Greyserman, Andrew Bieber and Ben Silverman—competed as individuals.
Southey-Gordon and Shuman both finished at par with a pair of 72s, good enough to tie for fourth. The performance marked Shurman’s second top-10 finish of the year. Matlari and Ricaurte tied for eighth with one-over 73s. Despite playing as an individual—his score did not count toward the team’s—Ricaurte posted the top finish of his career.
“It wasn’t a two or three-round tournament, but they knew every shot was worth three, basically,” Green said. “You had to go out there and pretend it was a three-round tournament because it could be over in a heartbeat—just really good gameplans. Guys played smart, confident and aggressive, and I was really happy to see Motin play that well. He’s certainly had some bright spots at times, to notch a tournament victory was pretty cool.”
Duke returns to action March 29-31 at the Hootie at Bulls Bay.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.