Blue Devils in Fourth; Evans Leads by Three Entering Final Round

Tuesday, May 14

Baton Rouge, La.

Duke University

Round 2 at Baton Rouge Regional

Ethan Evans walks towards the green at Baton Rouge Regional

Blue Devils in Fourth; Evans Leads by Three Entering Final Round

5/14/2024 8:41:00 PM | Men's Golf

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BATON ROUGE, La. – The Duke men's golf team remained inside the top-five of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional on Tuesday, moving into fourth place with a 3-over, 291, in the second round. Ethan Evans surged up the individual leaderboard with the best round on the course, a 5-under, 67, and leads the field by three strokes heading into the final round at the University Club.

The top five teams, following the conclusion of play on Wednesday afternoon, will advance to the NCAA Championship. Currently, Virginia leads the regional at 6-under, followed by Auburn (-1), Texas Tech (+3), Duke (+6) and Ohio State (+7).

HOW IT HAPPENED: ROUND TWO

As a team, Duke started on the 10th tee and shot a 3-over, 291, for the second consecutive day. The Blue Devils are 6-over, 582, through 36 holes of play.
The Blue Devils' 3-over was the fourth-best score-to-par on the course on Tuesday, with only one team – Texas Tech (-1) – finishing under-par on the day.
Ethan Evans paced Duke for the second round in a row, firing the low round on the course – a 5-under, 67. Evans started quickly, nearly holing his approach on the par-5 11th from 228 yards, before tapping in the one-footer for an eagle. The sophomore would then knock in a 30-footer for birdie on the next hole to get to 3-under through his first three holes of play. The lone blemish on his scorecard for the day, a double-bogey, came on the par-4 14th and moved Evans back to just 1-under. He responded with a birdie on the par-5 17th and made the turn to the front-nine at 2-under. Evans then played his final nine holes bogey-free with three more birdies, including back-to-back tap-ins on the par-5 third and par-4 fourth and connected on his final birdie of the day on the par-5 sixth. Evans enters the final round at 6-under, 138, overall and leads the individual leaderboard by three shots.
Luke Sample and William Love both carded a 2-over, 74, on Tuesday.
Sample played his first nine holes at 2-over but made eight pars while only dropping shots on No. 14, with a double-bogey. The junior got to under-par with a birdie on the 632-yard, par-5 third, after reaching the green in two and then took advantage of the other front-nine par-5, No. 6, with a long-distance putt for birdie. Sample tallied back-to-back bogeys on holes No. 7 and 8 to move back to 2-over, but ended with a par on No. 9 to close his round.
Love got into red numbers quickly with a birdie on No. 11, but moved over-par with three straight bogeys through the stretch of holes No. 13-15. Another birdie on the other back-nine par-5 helped the sophomore make the turn at 1-over. His front-nine scorecard included seven pars and a birdie on the long No. 3 after reaching the green in two, but two bogeys, on No. 2 and No. 9, ended Love's day with a 2-over score.
Ian Siebers, after subbing into the lineup in place of Daniel Choi, logged a 4-over, 76, in the second round. The senior chipped in for birdie on No. 12 to start his day and birdied the par-4 fourth, but also tallied six bogeys en route to his 4-over day.
Bryan Kim also shot a 4-over, 76, rolling in 14 pars, while dropping shots on four separate holes.

NOTES

As a team, Duke is inside the top five for scoring on par-3's and par-5's, shooting 6-over and 11-under, respectively.
The Blue Devils have played steady golf throughout the first two rounds, rolling in 115 pars – second-most by any team in the field.
Ethan Evans' 5-under, 67, was the best round on the course on Tuesday and matched Virginia's Deven Patel's first-round 67 for the best round of the regional.
Evans' 6-under, 138, through 36 holes is the program's fourth-best mark in NCAA Regional play, trailing on Michael Schachner (-10, 2005), Turner Southey-Gordon (-7, 2015) and Jake Shuman (-7, 2018).
Dating back to the ACC Championship, Evans has finished under-par in four of his last five rounds.
William Love leads the team in total birdies through 36 holes, with eight, which is tied for second-most by any individual in the field.
Bryan Kim leads the field with 28 pars and Evans is tied for second-most with 26.

QUOTES

"It was pretty good all around out there. Number one thing was I kept it in play all day. I didn't have to stress about being near any hazards or out of bounds. And then, just a lot of good putts. Played the par-5's really well, I think I was 5-under on the par-5's, which is doable out here, but I hit a lot of good shots to do it, so definitely felt good. I'm going to stick to the same gameplan again tomorrow and it should be good." – Duke sophomore Ethan Evans on his low round.
"We definitely know what it takes. We would've liked to be a little bit better than we are right now and be in the top three. We have our work cut out for us, for sure, but we want to start on the first hole [of the day], get those [first] nine holes solid and then we have guys that can clutch up down the stretch. We've got to put ourselves in the mix and then we'll have a good chance to get it done." – Evans on Duke's approach to the final round.

UP NEXT

Duke, in fourth place, will tee off of No. 10, starting at 8:30 CT in the final round. The Blue Devils are paired with fifth-place Ohio State and sixth-place LSU.
Live scoring is available on Golfstat.

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