Evans Leads Duke in First Round at NCAA Baton Rouge Regional

Monday, May 13

Baton Rouge, La.

Duke University

Round 1 at Baton Rouge Regional

Evans Leads Duke in First Round at NCAA Baton Rouge Regional

5/13/2024 6:25:00 PM | Men's Golf

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BATON ROUGE, La. – A strong second half of Duke's round has the Blue Devils in fifth place after a 3-over, 291, in the first round of action in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional. Ethan Evans fired a 1-under, 71, to lead Duke's efforts in the opening 18 holes of play, and the sophomore is inside the top-10 on the individual leaderboard heading into Tuesday's second round.

The regional, hosted by LSU at the University Club in Baton Rouge, is currently led by Virginia while Auburn, Ohio State and Houston round out the remaining teams in the top-five.

HOW IT HAPPENED: ROUND ONE

Duke started on the 10th hole on Monday morning and went on to shoot a 3-over, 291, as a team in the first round.
Ethan Evans was the low Blue Devil for the day, signing for a 1-under, 71. The sophomore rolled in two birdies, both after making the turn, while only dropping one shot all day. Evans started with three straight pars on holes No. 10-12 before his lone bogey of the round on the par-3 13th. Five more pars rounded out his back-nine and Evans made the turn at 1-over. A bogey-free front-nine was highlighted by a birdie on the 632-yard, par-5, third and he added another birdie, from distance, on No. 7 to move into red numbers. The Mercer Island, Wash., native finished with two consecutive pars on holes No. 8 and 9 to close out his under-par effort.
William Love was Duke's second player at even-par or better, after he carded an even-par, 72, on Monday. The sophomore started his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th, but immediately bounced back with a birdie on No. 11. After finding water and making double-bogey on No. 14, Love then rolled in his second birdie of the day on the par-5 17th before dropping a shot on No. 18 to make the turn at 2-over. Back-to-back birdies on holes No. 1 and 2 highlighted his front-nine, but Love also scrambled well, making a bogey save on the long par-5 third after finding the water on his tee shot and holing his putt from the fringe on the par-3 5th, to sit at 1-over after 15 holes. Love put his approach on No. 7 to inside 10 feet and sank the birdie to get back to even-par, where he would end his round.
Both Luke Sample and Bryan Kim shot 1-over, 73, in the first round.
Sample worked through an up-and-down first 11 holes, before steadying the round and finishing strong with two birdies across a four-hole span. Similar to his teammate Love, Sample started with a bogey on No. 10 but quickly erased the dropped shot with a birdie on No. 11. A bogey on the long par-3 13th was offset by a birdie on No. 15 before back-to-back bogeys on No. 17 and 18 saw the junior make the turn at 2-over. A double-bogey on No. 2 was Sample's last blemish on his scorecard, as he then proceeded to roll in birdies on both of the front-nine par-3's, capped off by a 30-footer on No. 8.
Similar to Sample, Kim played his first nine holes at 2-over and then shot even-par on the front-nine. The freshman, making his first NCAA Tournament start, made four straight pars to begin his round before double-bogeying the 14th. Kim reached 3-over after a bogey on the 215-yard, par-3, 16th but promptly bounced back with an up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 17th. After a dropped shot on No. 2, Kim made his second birdie of the day on a par-5, this time on No. 6, to return to 2-over, where he would stay for the remainder of his round.
Daniel Choi shot a 4-over, 76, to round out Duke's lineup on Monday afternoon. Choi closed his round strong with back-to-back birdies on the par-4 seventh and par-3 eighth, while also adding a third birdie earlier in his round on No. 17.

NOTES

Duke shot 2-over on the par-3's, second-best by any team in the field and trailing only Oregon, who went 1-over on those holes.
The Blue Devils' 57 pars in the first round were also second-best in the field, behind overall No. 1 seed Auburn, who rolled in 63 on Monday.
Luke Sample, who shot 1-under on the par-3's, was one of just five individuals to finish under-par on those holes.
Sample's birdie on the par-3 fifth was one of just nine birdies on the day at that hole, which played as the fourth-hardest hole on the golf course.
Ethan Evans paced the Blue Devils in par-4 scoring, shooting 2-under, which is tied for the second-best scoring on those holes by individuals in the field.
Evans made a field-leading 15 pars on Monday.
Duke has now shot a 3-over, 291, in both first rounds of a Baton Rouge Regional, after replicating its performance from the 2017 event.

QUOTES

"It was a pretty good day one. Definitely did a lot more of exciting things than it looks like on the scorecard, but definitely will take that out here. It wasn't playing easy – the wind was the opposite of what we thought, so definitely had to make some adjustments on the fly. Kept it in play off the tee, left some few shots out there with the putter, but overall hit a lot of good shots to my targets. Excited for tomorrow to keep the game plan going." – Duke sophomore Ethan Evans
"I saw a lot of putts go in today. Didn't necessarily hit it my best but found a way to get the ball in the hole. Managed out what could've been a lot worse of a round and turned it into a pretty solid finish. Hopefully can get some better shots tomorrow and we can make a run up the leaderboard." – Duke sophomore William Love

UP NEXT

Duke, sitting in fifth place, begins second-round play at 8:30 a.m., CT, going off the 10th tee. The Blue Devils are paired with Ohio State and Texas Tech for Tuesday's action.
Live scoring is available on Golfstat.

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