Duke men's golf earns No. 8 seed for NCAA regional

After missing out last year, the Blue Devils are back in the NCAA tournament field.

Duke was assigned the No. 8 seed in the Lubbock, Texas, region when the 81-team field was released Monday morning. The Blue Devils will play three rounds at The Rawls Course—the home course for Texas Tech—May 14-16 as one of the six regional tournaments in the country. The top five teams from each regional will advance and compete in the finals, which will be held May 29-June 3 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla.

Duke is the only team from the ACC in its region, which also features No. 3 Texas, No. 7 Auburn and the host No. 11 Raiders. Four ACC schools—No. 2 Florida State, No. 18 North Carolina, No. 19 Wake Forest and Clemson—were selected to compete in the regional tournament held at North Carolina's Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill.

When the Blue Devils tee off at The Rawls Course, it will be their first competition in nearly three weeks following the ACC championships. Duke posted a 22-over-par score across the three rounds en route to a 10th-place finish. Freshman Adam Wood continued his strong rookie campaign at the Old North State Club in New London, N.C., firing a final-round 70 to card a two-under-par for the tournament. Wood finished tied for 14th, marking the seventh top-20 finish of the year for the Zionsville, Ind., native.

Fellow freshman Jake Shuman also turned in a solid performance at the ACC championship, placing second on the team behind Wood with a score of four-over-par.

Shuman and Wood have been Duke's top golfers for most of the season, owning the two lowest scoring averages and single-round totals on the roster despite their relative inexperience. The Blue Devils will look for the pair of freshmen to continue to carry the squad as they look to make some noise in Lubbock and compete for a spot in the finals.