For the second straight year, Duke will return to the NCAA championship with an opportunity to compete on college golf’s biggest stage.
The Blue Devils finished the three-day tournament at Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh at 22-under-par to secure second, 17 strokes behind champion No. 15 Texas but ahead of the likes of No. 10 ACC champion Georgia Tech and No. 9 California—both of whom failed to advance, falling out of the top five. Following a strong second round that saw Duke vault seven places on the leaderboard to a tie for third, a solid final-round performance locked the Blue Devils as the tournament runner-ups five strokes clear of the top-five cut line.
The Blue Devils used a balanced scoring attack en route to their finish, with three top-15 finishes and no player repeating as the low score for the day. Sophomore Chandler Eaton, senior Jake Shuman and junior Alex Smalley all took turns leading the way, guiding Duke to a score of 277 to close the tournament Wednesday.
“Certainly there are times for us and for other teams where you have one hot hand and everyone benefits from a guy having three great rounds. However, this type of balance also has benefits,” head coach Jamie Green said. “From a psyche standpoint, everybody on the team knows that each of his teammates has the ability to get a round deep into the red on any given day. That brings with it a freedom for each player to go out there and play his game and not feel defensive.”
The second round has become a critical moving day for the Blue Devils all season. In all three-day tournaments of the year except the Valspar Championship in mid-March, Duke has moved up the leaderboard in the penultimate round. In the ACC championship in late-April, the Blue Devils catapulted up five spots with the low round of the day following the second 18 holes.
Shuman, who led Duke Tuesday with a flawless scorecard featuring seven birdies, has been playing his best golf of late. Two weeks ago, he won the tournament at the Mackenzie Tour–a PGA Tour Canada Qualifying Tournament at Crown Isle Resort and Golf Community. In that competition, the Needham, Mass., native–aided by his caddie, teammate and roommate Ben Silverman–used a 7-under-par 65 second round to move up the leaderboard.
“I do not think there is any doubt that it had some impact on his performance,” Green said. “Any time you are in a position when somebody [Silverman] knows you that well and can keep you in a good place mentally and knows your game physically, some really cool things can happen. I think it opened up Jake’s eyes a little bit more.”
The third round saw some bumps along the way that threatened the Blue Devils' place on the leaderboard. With the team combining for six bogeys and one double bogey on holes 10 through 13 on the back nine, Duke needed a strong finish to ensure it ended in the top five in a tournament that saw places two through seven separated by just six strokes.
Nonetheless, the Blue Devils righted the ship, finishing the final five holes at 6-under-par as a team. The 15th was a critical hole, with Duke dominating the 549-yard par-5 with two birdies and an eagle.
“The 15th hole probably made or broke some teams, throughout the tournament and maybe even today, and our guys played it flawlessly. To be able to score on that hole, the tee shot is key–hazard right, hazard left, it is just not wide enough,” Green said. “If you are going to play that hole well, just stepping up and piping it and trusting your golf swing to the target is key and every guy hit it right where they wanted to today."
On the individual leaderboard, the Longhorns’ Doug Ghim claimed the title with a 17-under-par finish. Smalley, who preceded his final-round 66 with scores of 71 and 70, finished in a tie for 10th at 6-under-par. Shuman joined his teammate in 10th, sandwiching his second round 64 with rounds of 71 and 72.
Freshman Adrien Pendaries notched three days of under-par golf, signing off on rounds of 70, 70 and 68 to finish 13th at 5-under-par. Eaton was not far behind, closing at 21st and 3-under-par. Although Evan Katz was not able to get much going in the first and final rounds with scores of 73 and 76, the Blue Devil freshman contributed to the team score on day two with a 68, leaving him at 4-over-par for the tournament in 55th.
The Blue Devils imposed their will on the short and long holes of the 7,273-yard track, finishing second in scoring average on both the par-3s and par-5s–averaging 2.97 and 4.67, respectively. Meanwhile, they shot just a hair over par on the par-4s, finishing with an average of 4.04.
With the finish, Duke will head to Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla., to compete against the top teams in collegiate golf. The Blue Devils will need a top-15 finish through three rounds of stroke-play to advance to round four. Then, they need to find themselves in the top eight to compete in a bracket style match-play tournament to decide the national champion.
“The vision once you know you are going to regionals is seeing yourself on that bracket, knowing it is the destination in mind," Green said. "You obviously have to stay focused through regionals and stroke play, but that is the goal of our team. We want to take on a team head-to-head and see how far we go, hopefully holding the big trophy at the end of the week.”
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