Love Medals, Blue Devils Finish in Second at Dorado Beach Collegiate

Tuesday, February 28

Dorado, Puerto Rico

Duke University

Round 3 at Dorado Beach Collegiate

William Love medals at Dorado Beach Collegiate

Love Medals, Blue Devils Finish in Second at Dorado Beach Collegiate

2/28/2023 4:45:00 PM | Men's Golf

Final Results (PDF)

DORADO, Puerto Rico – Three Blue Devils finished in fifth or better on the final individual leaderboard and William Love secured his first medalist finish on Tuesday at the Dorado Beach Collegiate. As a team, Duke secured second place with a 54-hole team score of 828 (-36), finishing eight shots off the winning pace set by Cincinnati.

Love followed up his 9-under 63 in Monday's second round with a 65 (-7) on Tuesday, en route to a 199 (-17) 54-hole score. With his win, Love set a freshman and program record for score to par and a freshman record for total score, while also carding the first sub-200 54-hole score for a Duke freshman. His 199 is second-best in program history, trailing only Alex Smalley who signed for a 197 (-16) at the Louisville Cardinal Challenge in 2018-19.

HOW IT HAPPENED

As a team, Duke shot an 8-under 280 in Tuesday's final round.
Ian Siebers turned in the Blue Devils' low round of the day, signing for a 4-under 68. His final round was bogey free and the junior used a stretch of three consecutive birdies on the back nine to finish in the 60's for the third straight day. The junior from Bellevue, Wash., ended the tournament at 202 (-14) and in solo third.
Ethan Evans also ended in the 60's for the third straight day after a 3-under 69 on Tuesday. The freshman bounced back from two early bogeys and birdied three of the final four holes on the front to make the turn at 2-under. Evans reached as low as 4-under after a birdie on the par-3 13th hole before back-to-back bogeys slowed the low-scoring day. He responded with a birdie on the par-4 17th to end in a tie for fourth place with a 54-hole score of 204 (-12).
The final under-par round of the day came courtesy of Daniel Choi. The freshman recovered from a slow start – 1-over through his first nine holes – and made birdies on both back-nine par-5's and the par-4 17th on his way to a 1-under 71 on Tuesday. The Westlake, Texas native claimed his second top-25 finish of the season with his tie for 21st at 210 (-6).
Luke Sample signed for an even-par 72 on Tuesday. After starting on the third hole, the New York, N.Y., native played his first nine holes of the morning at 1-under. Sample rolled in two more birdies before wrapping up his tournament in a tie for 31st at 213 (-3).
Also for Duke, Kelly Chinn signed for a 1-over 73 and finished in a tie for 31st at 213 (-3).
William Love, competing as an individual, started the day in a tie for third place, and immediately moved into red numbers with a birdie on the 230-yard, par-3 13th. The freshman from Atlanta, Ga., played bogey-free golf while adding another birdie on No. 17 to make the turn onto the front at 2-under. Love carded five straight pars before exploding for a 5-under stretch over four holes that included eagles on No. 6 and No. 9. He closed out his third round with three straight pars, claiming individual medalist honors at 199 (-17).
Jimmy Zheng, the other Blue Devil competing individually, signed for a 2-over 74 on Tuesday and ended his tournament in a tie for 24th at 211 (-5).

NOTES

Duke finished in second place, trailing only Cincinnati, in a 14-team field that included two top-25 teams and six top-100 squads.
The Blue Devils' team score of 36-under is the fourth-best team score to par in program history.
As a team, Duke finished with the second-best scores on par-3's, par-4's and par-5's, at +7, -7 and -41 respectively.
The Blue Devils made the most birdies of any team, rolling in 79 over the three days.
Ian Siebers led all individuals for scoring on par-4's at 7-under.
With his two eagles on Tuesday, William Love ended the tournament tied for the most eagles by an individual.
Love set freshman program records for score to par and total score while carding the first sub-200 54-hole score by a Duke freshman. Love also set the program record for score to par and now owns the second-best total score in program history and second sub-200 total score in program history.
With his 202 (-14), Siebers recorded new season-lows for both total score and score to par. His 202 is tied for sixth-best in program history.
Ethan Evans recorded the third-lowest score to par by a freshman in program history with his 12-under and is tied for fourth for total score by a freshman after his 204.
Evans now has carded six straight under-par rounds, dating back to the final event of the fall schedule in late October.

QUOTES

"I came into [the tournament] knowing my game was in a great spot, so I knew I needed to play with confidence and trust everything I'm doing, and I did a really good job of that. … It was cool to check the leaderboard and see everyone else playing so well and use that as motivation to dig and get even more out of each round." – freshman William Love
"It was fun to go low … Played solid golf all week and was able to trust what I was doing well. Good to see the team make a ton of birdies too, with William getting the win, and it bodes well for us going into the rest of a busy spring." – junior Ian Siebers