After riding a hot streak heading into the national championship that included an ACC championship and five straight top-five finishes, the Blue Devils were riding high.
But they fell well short on the biggest stage, never in contention to advance to the match-play portion at the NCAA championship.
“Nobody wants to show up for the national championship and not win,” Duke head coach Jamie Green said. “That always serves as motivation. It’s not like we want to get there but don’t know how to get there. We want to get there and we know what we did last year, so what can we do better?”
Now, after losing two of its top five scorers from last year—Alexander Matlari and Matt Oshrine—No. 24 Duke looks to move on and start its fall campaign off on the right note in the Rod Myers Invitational this weekend. In its only home event of the season, the Blue Devils will face some of the nation’s best teams, including No. 3 Vanderbilt, No. 8 Wake Forest and No. 10 Oregon.
They’ll do it without Matlari and Oshrine, who both started in the NCAA championship last season. Matlari was third on the team with a 72.2 scoring average and tied for first twice last year, and Oshrine emerged in the spring last season as perhaps Duke’s most consistent player.
“Anytime when you lose a quality person, and not just their score, that can impact you a little deeper,” Green said. “It’s an individual game, but these guys support each other all the time and push each other.... Losing them was a blow. But at the same time, that motivates the incoming seniors.”
The Blue Devils will lean on three seniors—Jake Shuman, Ben Silverman and Adam Wood—to step up and be leaders this year. Both Shuman and Wood had up-and-down seasons and will look to rebound in their final seasons in Durham as starters.
Wood, who led Duke in scoring average in 2015-16, regressed last year, failing to make the starting five in the team’s last four events and finishing a combined 27-over-par in the last four events he played in. Shuman's scoring average actually improved last season, but he had a tough stretch to begin the spring season.
But with two returning All-ACC golfers in sophomore Chandler Eaton and junior Alex Smalley, Green is confident that the Blue Devils will be able to maintain a high level of success.
“We might have lost a little bit of scoring, but I don’t think we’ve fallen off in terms of talent,” Green said. “We’re going to be in a very similar position. You hope all the returning guys have come back a little bit wiser with a little bit more bullets in the gun....There’s as much talent on this team as any in the country.”
A highly-touted recruit, Eaton will be the No. 1 golfer in the lineup for Green for the second straight season opener after the short-game wizard finished the year second on the team in scoring average and racked up six top-10 finishes.
“He’s not going to be satisfied with an All-ACC year as a freshman or an all-region player. He feels like there were a couple victory opportunities that he let slip by,” Green said. “He’ll very much dig deep to find out the reasons why.... He’s got some ideas, and they’re not massive changes by any stretch.”
After spending the summer with his instructor in his hometown of Alpharetta, Ga., Green says he thinks Eaton’s mental game is stronger now—he is more sure of himself on the course with a year of college golf under his belt.
With Eaton locked in at the top of the lineup, Shuman at No. 2, Smalley at No. 3 and Wood at No. 4, a new face stepped up and grabbed the last spot—sophomore Harrison Taee.
Taee didn't play in any top-level events last season, combining in just three B-team tournaments and combining to finish 26-over-par. But he steadily improved, hitting the weight room hard and fixing the mechanics of his swing, Green said, to help him earn the spot.
“He hit the ball last year and had birdie opportunities last year, but now his misses are better,” Green said. “The misses are tighter, smaller, very playable, and I’ve seen him scramble. He made a bunch of good bogies when he shot a 69 in the second round in qualifying.... Now that he’s here for a second year, he’s feeling that comfort.”
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Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.