The Blue Devils started strong in their fall season, but couldn’t find a way to avoid wilting down the stretch.
In every tournament this fall, Duke finished worse than where it sat at the end of the first round, including two epic collapses in October. In both the Nike Collegiate Invitational and the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate, the Blue Devils started out within striking distance, but fell to 10th or worse.
Now, No. 23 Duke will look to play a complete three rounds Monday and Tuesday in the Sea Best Invitational in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., with a field that includes five ranked teams. The Blue Devils will have to grapple with No. 7 Florida and No. 11 LSU, among others, at the Dye’s Valley Golf Course at TPC Sawgrass.
"Everybody on the team is excited to get the spring season started," Duke head coach Jamie Green said. "We had an opportunity to come down and take a look at the golf course a couple weeks ago, so that was great for our guys. We're excited to see how we measure up, and we're thrilled to have all three freshmen down on this trip. We're looking forward to getting going."
Green will have to steady his team with a young lineup, including No. 2 Evan Katz, who carded a top-10 finish last time out in the UNCG/Grandover Collegiate in his first collegiate appearance in the lineup Oct. 28-29. The Washington native has had a great start to his freshman year, finishing tied for 12th to open the season at the Rod Myers Invitational and finishing tied for second in an individual event in October.
Katz led the team in scoring average this spring, shooting six of his nine rounds under par.
Two more key cogs in Green's lineup are underclassmen—No. 3 Chandler Eaton, a sophomore, and No. 4 Adrien Pendaries, a freshman. After opening the season with a tied-for-third finish, Easton, a 2016-17 All-ACC pick, cooled off a bit, but picked up the pace in the final two events of the fall.
Pendaries also heads into the spring with momentum—he finished tied for seventh in the UNCG/Grandover Collegiate to close the season after an up-and-down start to his freshman year.
After leaning heavily on seniors last year, Duke has just one in its lineup this week—No. 5 Adam Wood. The Zionsville, Ind., native will have to rebound from two poor performances to close the fall—he finished a combined 20-over-par in those two tournaments, placing tied for 69th and tied for 38th.
Junior Alex Smalley rounds out the lineup at the No. 1 slot after leading Duke in scoring in its last two tournaments, finishing a combined 11-under-par and racking up two top-five finishes. Freshman Qi wen Wong will also make his second collegiate start as an individual after shooting 14-over-par in his debut in the UNCG/Grandover Collegiate. The Singapore native competed in the U.S. Open sectional stage in 2013 and was an All-American three times at IMG Academy.
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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.