Love Closes Strong, Duke in Fourth Heading Into Final Round

CHARLOTTE – Fueled by a 6-under closing nine from William Love, the Duke men’s golf team surged up the leaderboard at the ACC Championship on Saturday. The Blue Devils currently sit in fourth place, at 6-under overall, heading into the final round of stroke play.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• As a team, Duke fired a 5-under, 279, in the second round at Charlotte Country Club.
• William Love carded a 3-under, 68, to lead the Blue Devils’ efforts. After starting on hole 10, Love fired a 6-under, 30, on the front-nine, his final nine holes of play. Love began his round with three pars, before a double-bogey on both No. 13 and No. 16 pushed the sophomore over-par. A long birdie putt on the par-4 15th helped offset the dropped shots, as he made the turn at 3-over. Love then caught fire, beginning with a tap-in birdie on No. 1 and back-to-back birdies on holes No. 3 and 4. A 25-foot eagle putt dropped on the par-5 seventh and the round was capped off by a long-range uphill birdie on the ninth.
• Both Ethan Evans and Ian Siebers signed for a 1-under, 70, in the second round.
• Evans rolled in two birdies alongside two bogeys through his first nine holes of the day, moving to the front-nine at even-par. The sophomore poured in three birdies after making the turn, including two in a three-hole stretch spanning holes No. 5-7 to help erase a double-bogey previously made on No. 4.
• Siebers played his first round of the weekend after substituting into the lineup and started with two birdies across the first three holes. Two dropped shots over his next three holes moved the senior back to even-par, however, and he remained there making the turn. Siebers then played bogey-free on the front-nine, while adding a lone birdie, on No. 7, to cap off his under-par round.
• Luke Sample went even-par, 71, in the second round. The junior played bogey-free on the back-nine to start the day, while also rolling in a long-distance birdie putt on No. 15, to turn at 1-under. Two bogeys within the first four holes of the front-nine pushed Sample out of red numbers, but a hole-out eagle from just over 100 yards on No. 5 quickly returned him to 1-under. A lone bogey across his last four…