Duke Wins Blue Devil Spring Shootout

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Blue Devil Spring Shootout

Yeung Posts Runner-up Finish at Monroe Invitational

Duke Wins Blue Devil Spring Shootout

3/22/2015 7:45:00 PM | Men's Golf

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. -- The Duke men's golf team posted a three-under 285 Sunday to win the Blue Devil Spring Shootout at the Duke University Golf Club. Motin Yeung claimed individual medalist honors with a four-under 68, while Turner Southey-Gordon, Alexander Matlari, Jake Shuman and Michael Ricaurte also finished in the top 10.

"In our game, especially when there's no live scoring, you don't really know how the other teams are playing," said head coach Jamie Green. "You know who you are playing with and you kind of observe their games, but you just try to play the golf course the best you can, and that's what our guys did really well today. We've had some rough weather and haven't played this golf course very much the last month or so, but I think that's all the more reason I was really pleased, and I think they ought to be awfully proud for having a good round out there today."

Duke's 285 (-3) was 10 shots clear of second place Coastal Carolina with Alabama State (298), Elon (299) and Francis Marion (300) rounding out the top 5. Yeung was three shots better than Ben Wheeler (Coastal Carolina) and Charlie May (Elon) to claim his first tournament championship.

Yeung carded five birdies, 12 pars and just one bogey en route to his low round of the season. He was two-under on both the par 4s and par 5s Sunday to become Duke's first individual medalist since Adam Sumrall won the Trojan in 2013.

“This morning on the range warming up, I actually didn't feel quite well with my body," said Yeung. " I was sick earlier this week and didn't feel 100 percent. I knew I could post some score that would count, but I didn't expect something this low. When I got out there, I was just focused shot-by-shot and just trying to play well the shot in front of me. I ended up hitting the ball pretty well, a lot better than I expected, and made a lot of good putts for birdie.”

Green echoed some of Yeung's own observations on the round, lauding the upperclassman's ability to capitalize on his knowledge of the course.

“He's one of our upperclassmen, so he's played it the most, along with our two seniors," said Green. "They know how some of the putts break, they know where to leave it in relation to the hole when they see certain hole locations, but Motin has really good control of his golf ball. He keeps it in front of him, he keeps it in the fairway, he hits a lot of greens, and his short game is a lot sharper than people realize just because he hits so many fairways and greens. Today, he did capitalize on a couple of opportunities that he had and he just didn't give shots away. That's the thing. You can make birdies on this golf course, you just have to try to keep them by not making too many bogies. Our guys as a group did that, but he did it the best.”

Southey-Gordon and Shuman posted even-par 72s to finish tied for fourth overall. Southey-Gordon led the tournament with six birdies en route to his fourth consecutive even-par or better round. Shuman had four birdies, including a pair on the par 5s to fuel his second top 10 finish of the year.

Matlari and Ricaurte were tied for eighth with one-over 73s. Matlari recorded his second straight top-10 finish and birdied three of the four par 5s at the Duke University Golf Club. Ricaurte, playing as an individual, posted six birdies in his round while posting the top finish of his career.

Max Greyserman, also playing as an individual, shot a four-over 76 to finish tied for 23rd, while Ben Silverman (individual) and Adam Wood were tied for 29th with five-over 77s. Andrew Bieber tied for 48th with a six-over 78.

Duke has now claimed the team title in each of the past two events. Green now has 29 tournament titles, including 12 during his tenure at Duke.

"It wasn't a two or three-round tournament, but they knew every shot was worth three, basically," added Green. "You had to go out there and pretend it was a three-round tournament because it could be over in a heartbeat. Just really good gameplans. Guys played smart, confident and aggressive, and I was really happy to see Motin play that well. He's certainly had some bright spots at times, to notch a tournament victory was pretty cool.”

Duke returns to action March 29-31 at the Hootie at Bulls Bay.

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