Duke Places Seventh at Nike Collegiate Invitational

Tuesday, October 7

Fort Worth, Texas

All Day

Duke University

Day Two at Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational

Duke Places Seventh at Nike Collegiate Invitational

10/7/2014 9:05:00 PM | Men's Golf

By: Duke Sports Information

FORT WORTH, TEXAS – Senior Michael Ricaurte posted a one-over 71 Tuesday to pace Duke to a final round 293 (+13) at Colonial Country Club in the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational. The Blue Devils closed the event seventh overall with an 874 (+34) with Ricaurte and freshman Adam Wood finishing in the top 20 individually.

"I am really happy for Mike [Ricaurte], who has worked diligently on fine tuning the little parts of his game that were going to make a difference in scoring," said head coach Jamie Green. "It was nice to see that pay off this week down the stretch. He hit some great golf shots down the stretch and holed out a bunker shot on No. 16 for birdie. It was great to see for him and really good for our team."

No. 25 Oregon took home the team title with an 11-over 851, six shots better than No. 7 Stanford and followed by No. 11 Oklahoma (860), No. 8 Washington (862), No. 4 Texas (863), No. 24 USC (872) and Duke (874).

"There were certainly some highlights and some things to work from and build on," added Green. "Each of them would say that there were opportunities out there that we could have taken better advantage of but I was really impressed and proud of how in one week's time they really took to heart some of the things we worked on as a team in regard to more low go-to shots and some ball flights that were staying down underneath the wind that helped us quite a bit this week."

Thomas Lin (Oregeon) claimed the individual title with an eight-under 202 with Cheng Tsung Pan (Washington) two shots off the pace and Maverick McNealy (Stanford), Sean Crocker (USC) and Michael Gellerman (Oklahoma) rounding out the top 5.

Ricaurte opened the day with three straight pars before collecting a birdie on the par 3 fourth hole. The Columbus, Ohio, native slipped to one-over at the turn following bogeys on No. 5 and No. 8 and dropped another stroke with a bogey on No. 11 before settling in. Ricaurte parred six of the final seven holes with a birdie on the par 3 16th hole. He closed out the tournament with a career-best tie for 11th finish with a seven-over 217 (73-73-71).

“We were all working on go-to shots in the week leading up to the tournament and I used those types of shots that I am confident in to my advantage on some really tough holes,” said Ricaurte. “This finish gives me a lot of confidence in my game heading into the tournament at our course, which I know very well.”

Wood continued his strong fall season with a tie for 16th finish at the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational. He wrapped up the tournament with a two-over 72 to finish at eight-over (218). Wood birdied his opening two holes in the final round but suffered a double-bogey on No. 5 to slip back to even-par. He recorded 11 pars over the next 13 holes with bogeys on No. 9 and No. 18. The Zionsville, Ind., native has finished in the top 20 in two of Duke's three tournaments this fall.

Jake Shuman, a freshman out of Massachusetts, posted a final round 74 to tie for 22nd with a 10-over 220. He got off to a slow start with four bogeys on the opening nine holes before closing the tournament with nine straight pars.

Senior Turner Southey-Gordon and sophomore Max Greyserman finished tied for 39th at 14-over (224). Southey-Gordon was plagued by three straight bogeys in the early part of the final round en route to a six-over 76 Tuesday, while Greyserman suffered a triple-bogey and double-bogey during a round of 78.

Duke returns to action this weekend with the fifth annual Rod Myers Invitational at the Duke University Golf Club. Additional information about the Blue Devils' home tournament is available at www.goduke.com/rmi<http://www.goduke.com/rmi>.

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