Duke Tied for Fourth at Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate

Friday, October 16

Jonesborough, Tenn.

All Day

Duke University

Day One

Duke Ranked 19th in Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches' Poll

Duke Tied for Fourth at Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate

10/16/2009 6:45:00 PM | Men's Golf

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C - Duke is tied for fourth place after shooting two-over par (290) in the rain-soaked first round of play this afternoon at the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at The Ridges in Jonesborough, Tenn. Junior Wes Roach is in a tie for second place after firing an opening-round 68.

"I'm really proud of Wes [Roach's] play today," head coach Jamie Green said. "I am very excited for his round and I know he is looking forward to the next few days to see how he can do in the individual competition."

No. 13 Oregon State leads the team competition after firing a 286 to enter the clubhouse at two-under par. Diego Velasquez leads the Beavers, and the tournament, after carding a 66 to finish at six-under par. The 21st-ranked Tennessee Volunteers sit in a tie for second-place with Missouri at one-under par. Three ACC schools are tied with the Blue Devils in fourth-place as Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest came in at two-over par. North Carolina-Wilmington also joins the ACC grouping in fourth-place.

"I saw a lot of positives out there and I know the guys are looking forward to tomorrow and getting back on the course," head coach Jamie Green said. "The guys are disappointed with how things ended up. I know we didn't play the last few holes particularly well, but they are a tough stretch of holes. There is still a lot of golf to go and we are excited for tomorrow's round."

The weather conditions were less than ideal with wind, spouts of rain and temperatures in the 40s, but Roach didn't seem to be negatively effected. "The course was definitely playing pretty long," Roach said. "You were not getting much roll on the fairways but the greens were soft, so you had to take advantage of the wet conditions."

Roach carded two birdies on the front nine to go out in 34 and posted two more birdies on the back nine to finish at four-under par. The Knoxville, Tee. native was incredibly consistent all day in his first official round of the season, with 14 pars to complement his four birdies. He is only two strokes behind Velasquez heading into the second round.

"Overall, I struck the ball really well and hit a lot of fairways and greens." Roach said. "The greens that I did miss I was able to get up and down to save par. Hopefully I can keep hitting the ball the way I did today and keep making some putts."

Senior Adam Long teed it up for the first time this season as well and carded a one-under par round of 71. Long got off to a good start with two birdies on the front nine and finished his round under-par, one of only 17 players to do so. Long is in a tie for ninth place and is still close with the first-round leaders.

Freshman Julian Suri got off to a rocky start but the St. Augustine, Fla. native settled down and carded three birdies in the final 14 holes to finish the day with a three-over par 75.

Freshman Brinson Paolini entered the clubhouse at four-over par and sophomore Spencer Anderson was able to get to two-over par on the back nine but finished the day with a 77.

Duke will be teeing off tomorrow at 10:10 a.m. again for the second-round of tournament play. The first groups will be going off at 8:30 a.m. Live scoring will be available at golfstat.com or at ETSUbucs.com

DUKE NOTES
*** Roach was the only player in the field not to record an over-par stroke
*** Duke has two players in the top 10 after the first-round
*** Duke is currently ahead of seven ranked squads in the team competition

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