Over the course of 54 holes in sunny Florida, senior William Love hit his stride against top competition, going for a season-low total through three rounds.
Duke competed in the Valspar Collegiate Invitational Monday and Tuesday at Floridian National Golf Club, where it tied for ninth place on the back of a 17-under 835. Love was able to stake himself a ninth-place individual finish with his 11-under 202, while teammates Bryan Kim and Ethan Evans joined him shooting under par with a 4-under 209 and 3-under 210, respectively. The Blue Devils faced some of their stiffest competition this season, including No. 1 Auburn among nine top-25 opponents.
“I was really pleased with their patience,” head coach Bob Heintz said. “In a field of that strength, that wasn’t an overall bad performance.”
After a frustrating front nine to kick off the tournament, Heintz was looking for his team to dig deep and fight back. Although the course was playing fairly easily, Duke struggled to score. Fortunately, Kim and Love caught fire, tallying a combined seven birdies and an eagle to rebound and both finish under par for the day.
“Through the first 12 holes, some guys looked a little frustrated because the golf course wasn’t playing that hard,” Heintz said. “But then they rallied really hard at the end of that round, and then kept that momentum going into round two.”
Love’s smooth play quickly became the highlight of the tournament from a Blue Devil perspective. The Atlanta native spurred Duke’s back nine push in the first round with an eagle on the 13th hole, which he replicated in the second round.
Despite consistently shooting even par on the front across all three rounds, Love managed to finish the tournament with an 11-under 202, taking advantage of a familiar and confidence-inducing stretch on the back.
“When he’s driving it well he can be pretty dominant on par fives, and obviously we saw that this week,” Heintz said. “His iron play has been really good. He’s hitting a very repeatable draw right now, and it’s really been fun coaching him.”
For the likes of Blue Devil standouts Kim and Evans, however, the tournament was a point of frustration. As the sixth-ranked college golfer in the country, Kim would have expected to find a little more joy on the course. For a player of his caliber, finishing tied for 30th at 4-under was simply not good enough.
Evans too struggled with his iron play, and despite shooting below par, could have performed better than 3-under 210. For the unit as a whole, the Valspar Collegiate Invitational was not a performance up to standards, as frustrations carried over from one round to another.
“As good as they are to be barely under par, that’s pretty frustrating for them,” Heintz said of Kim and Evans. “The nice thing about a player with that level of ability is they can turn that around in two days, get a different feel going and get a little more confident.”
Daniel Choi and Ollie Mukherjee rounded out the squad for Duke, shooting 5-over 218 and 9-over 222 respectively. The play of the squad will need to improve down the stretch, a key lesson which can be learned from tournaments against such difficult competition.
“We need to be a little more dominant from start to finish to really consider ourselves an elite team,” Heintz said. “I think that talent-wise we’re in that category, but as far as confidence, we have to clean some things up if we really want to contend.”
Despite the mixed feelings towards this tournament, positives can certainly be drawn. The Blue Devils managed to crack the top 10 through all three rounds, and they were consistent if not perfect, collectively placing above three top-25 teams. If Love can maintain his level of play as the rest of the squad looks to improve, Duke should certainly be optimistic about the future.
“Let’s just keep William living where he is and get a couple of these other guys just a little bit sharper, a little more simple in their approach,” Heintz said.
The Blue Devils are back in action March 30, when it will compete at the UNCW Seahawk Intercollegiate hosted by Country Club of Landfall (Nicklaus Course) in Wilmington, N.C. Facing easier competition on a course that caters more to its strengths, Duke should find good opportunity to display its level.