SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The Duke men’s golf team completed its practice round on Thursday and is set to begin action at the NCAA Championship on Friday morning. Held on the Raptor Course at the Grayhawk Golf Club, the championship begins with 54 holes of play for all 30 teams before the first cut is made. The course plays to a par of 70 and is 7,289 yards from the championship tees. The Blue Devils are making their 24th appearance as a team in the championship, the first since 2019 and the eighth under head coach Jamie Green.
Finals play for the championship consist of three days of stroke play on Friday thru Sunday (54 holes), after which the top 15 teams and nine individuals not on an advancing teams will be determined. That is followed by a final day of 18 holes of stroke play (Monday) to determine the top-eight teams that will advance to match play as well as the 72-hole individual champion. The team national champion will be determined by a match-play format that will consist of quarterfinals and semifinals conducted on Tuesday, followed by the finals on Wednesday.
The Blue Devils’ lineup for the event is Luke Sample, William Love, Ian Siebers, Kelly Chinn, and Ethan Evans. Jimmy Zheng is designated as Duke’s alternate. Sample currently leads Duke with his stroke average of 71.17 through 35 total rounds, while Love leads all freshmen on the team with a 71.53 stroke average through 32 rounds.
Duke advanced to the championship event out of the Norman Regional with a dramatic fifth-place finish at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club. Trailing the cutline by as many 10 shots during the final round, the Blue Devils used 17 birdies through the final nine holes of play to storm back and edge into fifth place by one shot with a 54-hole score of 21-under, 843. The 13-under, 275, by Duke in the final round set the program record for score to par in a single round in NCAA regional play and tied with Alabama for the best third-round score of any team in the field.
The Blue Devils were led by Chinn in regional play, as the sophomore finished in a tie for seventh place at 8-under, 208, on the individual leaderboard. Love wrapped up his first regional appearance as a Blue Devil one shot behind Chinn, ending at 7-under, 209, and in a tie for ninth place. The two top-10 finishes marked the second and third-best 54-hole NCAA…
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