After a sluggish start to the spring slate on the West Coast last month, the Blue Devils will try to find their rhythm a little closer to home.
No. 20 Duke returns to the golf course Sunday at the Cape Fear National Intercollegiate in Leland, N.C., looking to rebound from a weak performance at the Prestige at the PGA West. The two-day tournament will be hosted by Appalachian State at the par-72 6,850-yard Cape Fear National course, one of the top courses in North Carolina.
Aside from Appalachian State, the Blue Devils will face off against 11 other teams, including UNC Wilmington, High Point and North Dakota. Duke is one of only two teams in the field ranked among the top 100 teams in the country. The other is the in-state Seahawks, who enter the weekend sitting at No. 85.
At the Prestige at the PGA West, sophomore Adam Wood struggled in his first tournament since being named to the Ben Hogan Award watch list—an award given to the best golfer in the nation. Wood's best round was an even-par 71 on the second day of competition before a six-over-par Sunday dropped him to nine-over-par 222 for the weekend, finishing in a tie for 48th place.
Despite the rough outing, Wood still leads the team with a 71.1 stroke average and has posted 11 of his 17 rounds this season at par or better.
Freshman Alex Smalley and junior Max Greyserman paced Duke at the Prestige, finishing in a tie for eighth place with scores of two-under-par. But like Wood, the duo endured final-round woes that prevented their scores from being much better. Greyserman ranks second on the team with a 72.4 scoring average in 14 rounds played. The tough Sunday dropped the Blue Devils into 10th place for the event, after not finishing worse than third in any of their fall tournaments.
Wood, Smalley and Greyserman will be joined in the lineup by sophomore Jake Shuman and junior Alexander Matlari. Juniors Matt Oshrine and Andrew Bieber, sophomore Ben Silverman, and freshman Shrish Dwivedi will all play the tournament as individuals.
Shuman finished tied for 37th place in the Prestige with a final score of 219. Matlari finished tied for 73rd with a score of 235. Oshrine had his own late-round troubles, and shot a 10-over-par for the tournament, which resulted in a tie for 53rd place.
Dwivedi, Silverman, and Bieber are playing after having some of their best finishes of the season. Dwivedi and Silverman both finished tied for second in the Duke-UNC individual tournament, while Bieber finished tied for 12th.
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