Pendaries, Katz Finish Top 10 at Nike Collegiate

Tuesday, October 1

Portland, Ore.

All Day

Duke University

Day Three at Nike Collegiate Invitational

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Pendaries, Katz Finish Top 10 at Nike Collegiate

10/1/2019 9:25:00 PM | Men's Golf

Final Results

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Duke men's golf team was boosted by top-10 finishes from juniors Adrien Pendaries and Evan Katz and wrapped up the Nike Collegiate Invitational on Tuesday with a seventh-place finish as a team at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland.

Pendaries and Katz each carded one-under 70's in the final round with Pendaries posting his second top-10 in as many tournaments this season. The junior from France was tied for sixth at seven-under 206 (69-67-70), while Katz finished ninth, one stroke back (68-69-70) of his classmate.

Pendaries has now posted six consecutive sub-par rounds to open his junior campaign with a second-place finish at the Rod Myers Invitational and this finish at the Nike. He is 17-under par through his first two events.

"Adrien is playing some beautiful golf right now," said head coach Jamie Green. "He's confidently executing a really good game plan hole after hole, and it's adding up to under-par rounds, whether flashy or not. He's in a terrific state of mind on the course and isn't letting setbacks, poor shots, or bad breaks get to him."

Feasting on the back nine at Pumpkin Ridge, Pendaries was bogey-free for the tournament on the inward half with six birdies and an eagle for the tournament. Tuesday's final round saw him birdie the 11th and 12th and close with six straight pars.

As a team, the Blue Devils played the back nine on Tuesday in six-under par with just one collective bogey over the 45 holes.

"The front nine was playing pretty tough, especially for players in that first wave of teams going out after the frost delay," said Green. "But our guys started with determined and focused energy. They got what they could out of the front and were in a good state of mind to turn on the jets when they hit the back."

The ninth-place finish for Katz was his best since a tied for seventh at the Clemson Invitational last season. He recovered from two bogeys over his first three holes on Tuesday to play bogey-free over the final 15 holes with birdies on the fourth, seventh and 16th holes.

Oklahoma went wire-to-wire in holding off a stacked field in winning the Nike Collegiate Invitational, posting a 29-under 823, with the Sooners' Logan McAllister (-11) winning individual medalist honors.

Wake Forest was second (-24), followed by Clemson (-17), Oklahoma State (-12), Texas (-9), Vanderbilt (-9), the defending NCI champion Blue Devils (-5), Georgia (-2), Stanford (+3) and Baylor (+7) to round out the top 10 of the 15-team field.

Also for Duke, sophomore Quinn Riley fired his best round of the tournament with an even-par 71 on Tuesday. The Raleigh native was five-over for the week and finished tied for 48th (74-73-71). Senior Steven DiLisio shared 48th place with his teammate with rounds of 73-72-73, while senior Chandler Eaton was tied for 59th (76-71-75=222, +9).

"We're really proud of how each player hung in there and gave it their all down to the last shot," said Green. "They kept attacking, converting a few red numbers on the back nine and saving lots of pars whenever they faced adversity."

Duke is back in action next week at the Jack Nicklaus Invitational at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio. The two-day match play event featuring Duke, Ohio State, Florida State and Clemson begins Monday.

Duke Scoring
T6. Adrien Pendaries (69-67-70=206, -7)
9. Evan Katz (68-69-70=207, -6)
T48. Quinn Riley (74-73-71=218, +5)
T48. Steven DiLisio (73-72-73=218, +5)
T59. Chandler Eaton (76-71-75=222, +9)

#GoDuke