In the quick turnaround following the General James Hackler Championship, Duke men’s golf took off once again to the Florida coast, this time to the palm tree-rich Floridian Yacht and Golf Club for the Valspar Intercollegiate Invitational. The Blue Devils finished in sixth place, one stroke behind Auburn and two behind Oklahoma. A superb final round of 8-under 276 helped the squad secure a decent finish in the field. Leading the scoring for the Blue Devils was senior Kelly Chinn at 11-under 202, good enough for an individual fourth-place finish.
In round two, Chinn was simply automatic, posting a career low 7-under 64 with eight birdies in that round. The hot putter continued on the second day, where Chinn opened with back-to-back birdies. The Great Falls, Va., native cooled down with two bogeys in his final seven holes, but managed to finish 3-under on the day for a career-low tournament score of 11-under 202.
“I think the reality of it is, whether it’s a practice round or leading into that tournament, I felt like Kelly’s ball-striking was in a good place,” head coach Jamie Green said of Chinn’s performance. “It was just a matter of whether he could hole one or two or three more putts.”
Chinn’s fourth-place finish was one stroke ahead of the nation’s top amateur — Florida State’s Luke Clanton who also competed in the Valspar Championship, the PGA Tour event of the same name. Clanton earned a start at the Valspar Championship because he won the Intercollegiate last year.
Contributing to Duke’s scoring was junior Ethan Evans, who, despite having a rocky 3-over 74 in round one, finished 1-over 214 in the tournament, following an 1-over 70 in round two and a 1-under 69 in the final round. Sophomore Bryan Kim joined Evans in matching the 69 for their last round. Kim finished 5-under in the tournament, good for a T-16th place. A solid 3-under 68 in the first round and an even-par second round contributed to his overall score.
“Kim has been our most consistent from a ball-striking perspective,” Green said. “The only thing that can kind of potentially keep him from shooting in the 60s every round is whether or not the putts drop and … his belief or his attitude.”
Senior Luke Sample, who currently is ranked as the 27th overall golfer on PGA Tour University, had a rough tournament, posting a 10-over 81 on the second round of the tournament with three double-bogeys. He finished his final round at 1-under 70 to finish tied for 69th place.
“[Sample] has led us and been a top performer for a number of years, you know, throughout his whole career,” Green said. “This just happened to be a couple of weeks when he didn’t have his best stuff.”
The long clubs paid well for the Blue Devils; they finished fourth on par-5 scoring in the tournament at 26-under on these holes, Duke scored three eagles overall in the process. The combination of water hazards throughout the course and long fairway bunkers made approaches difficult, but the Blue Devils did not seem to be unsettled by such hazards.
Simultaneously, about 700 miles away in Wilmington, N.C., five Duke golfers competed as individuals at the UNCW Seahawk Intercollegiate. The home-course advantage proved decisive as the Seahawks emerged as the only team to finish under par, securing victory at the Donald Ross-designed Cape Fear Country Club. Though Duke did not compete as a team, a lot of the younger players, including all three freshmen, were part of the Blue Devil representation at the event.
“I think the fact that our guys in that event in Wilmington approached it as if it were a team tournament … really bodes well for our program,” Green said.
Leading all Duke golfers was junior Daniel Choi, who had a third round 3-under 68 to cancel out an opening round 3-over-74. His even score for the tournament placed him at a tie for 11th. One stroke behind in solo 18th place was one of the Scottish twins in Ollie Mukherjee. A third round 2-under 69 set his overall tournament score at 1-over par.
Mukherkjee’s twin Sam also saw some action at the Intercollegiate. The freshman finished the tournament at 5-over, tying two others for 24th place. A rocky final round of 5-over 76 dropped him down the leaderboard considerably after shooting even par over the first two days. Rounding out the freshman action was John Hiller who finished tied for 37th. The New York native carded his career low at 3-under 68 on the final day of action. This followed a troubled opening round of 9-over 80; he fared well in the second round though, going just 1-over 72 in that stretch.
Duke will have two weeks off as they have one final regular-season tuneup before the ACC Championship. The Blue Devils make the short trip south to the Tar Heel Intercollegiate at Finley Golf Club in Chapel Hill April 12-13.
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