Duke In 12th After Two Rounds At General Hackler Championship

Sunday, March 8

Myrtle Beach, S.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day One

Long Advances To Quarterfinals At 108th North and South

Duke In 12th After Two Rounds At General Hackler Championship

3/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf

By: Duke Sports Information

Murrells Inlet, S.C. -- The Duke men's golf team shot a 303-313=616 (+40) in the opening 36 holes of play at the General Jim Hackler Invitational on Sunday. The Blue Devils are 12th overall with one round remaining in the event. Junior Adam Long paced Duke with a five-over 149 in the opening two rounds of play.

"It was a long day out there, in many ways," said head coach Jamie Green. "The wind picked up and blew a bit, but we certainly didn't have it any tougher than any other team. We're going to dig down deep and find the motivation to finish well tomorrow."

East Tennessee State holds the tournament lead with an 11-over 587 with Pepperdine three shots off the pace at 590 (+14). Wake Forest (591) is third, while North Carolina and Coastal Carolina round out the top five at 597 (+21).

"On days like today, you've got a choice; wallow or be objectively critical and then find an positive silver lining to rebound from," added Green. "In regards to that, I will say that our guys got off to a solid start and were ready to go from the first tee shot. The middle of the day was a struggle, but we had some nice finishes for sure."

Long opened the day with a four-over 76 in the first round. He had 14 pars and four bogeys on the opening 18 holes of the day. In the afternoon round, Long started with a double-bogey on his opening hole (No. 4) and a bogey on the second hole to slip to three-over. He carded back-to-back birdies on No. 8 and No. 9 to get back to one-over but bogeys on the next two holes but him back at three-over. Following a birdie on No. 12, Long suffered a double-bogey on the par 3 13th hole to move to four-over. The St. Louis, Mo., native parred the next four holes before finishing the round birdie-par-eagle-par to close the round with a one-over 73. Long is tied for 18th overall heading into Monday's final round.

"Adam [Long], especially, stayed focused, believed in his ability and really hit quality golf shots - playing great golf down the stretch," said Green. "I am certainly proud of him for that. Spencer [Anderson] and Wes [Roach] also finished pretty well late in the round and remained mentally alert to the end - that's what you have to do to be competitive at ACC's and NCAA's. It's always the right time to build the right habits."

Freshman Spencer Anderson shot 75-78=153 on Sunday and is tied for 40th overall. He had one birdie, 27 pars, six bogeys and two double-bogeys on the day.

Clark Klaasen, a senior from Grand Rapids, Mich., fired a one-over 73 in the opening round at the TPC of Myrtle Beach. He had two birdies, 13 pars and three bogeys in the morning round. Klaasen never got on track in the second round shooting a 12-over 84. He is tied for 59th with a +13 157.

Senior Michael Quagliano and sophomore Wes Roach are tied for 67th after each player shot 79-81=160 (+16) on Sunday.

Duke will open final round action on Monday beginning at 9:03 a.m. on the back nine of the TPC of Myrtle Beach. The Blue Devils will be paired with Ohio State and South Carolina for the third round. Live scoring and complete results are available at www.golfstat.com.