Chinn's 71 Leads Duke in NCAA Regional Second Round

Tuesday, May 17

Columbus, Ohio

Duke University

Round 2 at NCAA Regional

Chinn's 71 Leads Duke in NCAA Regional Second Round

5/17/2022 3:51:00 PM | Men's Golf

SECOND ROUND RESULTS LIVE SCORING COACH GREEN INTERVIEW PHOTO GALLERY Photo Gallery

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Freshman Kelly Chinn fired an even-par 71 and sophomore Jimmy Zheng remains in the top 20 to pace the Duke men's golf team as the NCAA Columbus Regional continued Tuesday at the OSU Golf Club's Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio.

As a team, the Blue Devils remain in the hunt for a top-five spot to advance to the NCAA Championship in Scottsdale. On a tight leaderboard, Duke sits in eighth place through 36 holes at 11-over par after shooting five-over 289 on Tuesday and enters Wednesday's final round three strokes back of fifth place and just five back of third.

Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech lead the 13-team field through 36 holes, each at 7-under par, followed by host Ohio State (+6), Clemson (+7), East Tennessee State (+8), Arkansas (+10), San Francisco (+10) and Duke (+11) to round out the top eight.

Chinn was solid start to finish, jump-starting his round by draining an eight-footer for birdie on the par-5 12th (his third hole of the day) and rolling in another lengthy putt for birdie on tough par-3 17th – one of only six birdies surrendered by the 221-yard hole on the day. The Great Falls, Va., native's final birdie was just a tap-in on the par-5 sixth after he nearly holed-out from the fairway from 75 yards with his third shot.

Thanks to his 71, Chinn is tied for 26th at 3-over 145 through 36 holes.

"This is a fantastic venue for this type of championship," said head coach Jamie Green. "You can see some big swings (in the scores) and that's the fun of playing in this regional. Of course, you'd like to have a 10-shot lead over the second place team (heading into the final round), but at the end of day we're five shots back of the third place team and the goal is to finish in the top five."

Zheng was 2-over 73 for the day and the Auckland, New Zealand sophomore leads Duke at 2-over 144, which is tied for 20th. He birdied two more par-3's on Tuesday and continue to feast on the course's difficult collection of par-3 holes. He is 2-under on the par 3's and one of just seven players in the field in the red.

Freshman Luke Sample followed Monday's 75 with a one-over 72 on Tuesday, which was the Blue Devils' second lowest score behind Chinn's 71. The New York City native rolled in a birdie putt on the 18th as he turned in one-over 36 and bounced back from a bogey on the sixth to birdie the par-4 seventh and par the final two holes. Sample is tied for 44th overall at 5-over 147. His 27 pars through 36 holes are second most in the field.

"Kelly and Luke were really close to low rounds today," said Green. "Just a couple of kicks here or there may have cost them a few strokes, but each of them got plenty of looks art birdie today and that's a good feeling going into a ball strikers golf course."

Also for Duke on Tuesday, Quinn Riley carded his second consecutive round of 73 and the senior from Raleigh is tied for 31st at 4-over 146. Sophomore Ian Siebers shot a 4-over 75 and the Bellevue, Wash., product is tied for 44th at 5-over 147 for the regional.

Due to forecasted inclement weather on Wednesday, the final round tee times have been moved up by 30 minutes. Duke is paired with San Francisco and Northwestern for the final 18 holes, with trio of teams off the first hole beginning at 7:55 a.m.

Live scoring is available at golfstat.com.

8. Duke -- 290-289=579, +11
T20. Jimmy Zheng -- 71-73=144, +2
T26. Kelly Chinn -- 74-71=145, +3
T31. Quinn Riley -- 73-73=146, +4
T44. Ian Siebers -- 72-75=147, +6
T44. Luke Sample -- 75-71=147, +6

#GoDuke