Following their lone home tournament of the year, the Blue Devils will tee it off on the road this week at a historic venue.
No. 22 Duke will look to build off its fifth-place finish at the Rod Meyers Invitational last week—the Blue Devils led the field with a six-under-par 282 in Sunday’s final round—when it travels to Toledo, Ohio for the Inverness Intercollegiate Monday and Tuesday. The tournament will be held at the Inverness Club—host to four U.S. Opens and two U.S. Senior Opens—and features 54 holes of play across two days for the 13 teams competing.
Against a field paced by No. 14 Auburn, Duke will play 36 holes Monday and 18 more Tuesday on the daunting par-71 course. The Inverness Club has just two par-5s—one on each nine—but still measures more than 7,300 yards from the back tees thanks to seven par-4s that measure more than 450 yards.
Although the Blue Devils have never participated in the first 11 years of the tournament, this week will be a homecoming of sorts for junior Ben Silverman, a Toledo native himself. Silverman fired a career-best 67 in Sunday’s final round and now gets to play on his home course, which is just more than a mile from where he attended high school.
Along with Silverman, Duke head coach Jamie Green will take his top six finishers from the Rod Meyers Invitational. He has yet to name the five golfers whose scores will count toward the Blue Devils’ team total, but the other two will still compete in the tournament as individuals.
Junior Jake Shuman was the only Duke golfer to finish under par last week, carding a four-under-par 68 on Sunday to drive his three-round total of 2-under-par. That was enough to earn Shuman his first top-10 finish of the season—he recorded five last year—and he appears to have hit the ground running after a busy summer season.
Shuman slotted in as the No. 2 spot for the Blue Devils last week, thanks to the arrival of freshman Chandler Eaton. Eaton—ranked as the No. 13 golfer in his class—is the lone newcomer for an otherwise veteran Duke squad but struggled in his first collegiate tournament, failing to break par in any of his three rounds en route to a 32nd-place finish.
Senior Max Greyserman was the Blue Devils’ other top-20 finisher at home last week, coming in at three strokes behind Shuman and tying for 18th overall. Classmate Matt Oshrine and sophomore Alex Smalley rounded out Duke’s starting five, and tied for 32nd and 27th, respectively.
After this weekend, the Blue Devils will have one week off before traveling to Fort Worth, Texas, for the Nike Collegiate Invitational.
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