Duke rises to top of crowded Nike Collegiate leaderboard

FORT WORTH, Texas (Oct. 1, 2018) – Duke out-paced an all-star field Monday at Colonial Country Club and moved into the lead at the Nike Golf Collegiate. The Blue Devils posted a 6-under 274, the round of the day by four shots, to climb to the top of what had been a crowded leaderboard. Duke has a slim two-shot lead on Clemson.

Duke started the day four shots off the lead, but its top four scorers went 5 under in the first three holes. That included an eagle at No. 1 from Chandler Eaton, who had 3-under 67 for the day. That wasn’t even the best Blue Devil score – Alex Smalley had 4-under 66.

Still, Eaton is part of an eight-man tie for first at 3 under. That group also includes Stanford’s Isaiah Salinda, Georgia’s Trent Phillips, Texas’ Cole Hammer, TCU’s Stefano Mazzoli, Clemson’s Turk Pettit, Wake Forest’s Eric Bae and Vanderbilt’s Mason Greenberg, who had the solo lead after Round 1.

Already this season, Duke has finished T-2 at its own Rod Myers Invitational, then followed up with a win at the Louisville Cardinal Challenge.

“We had a really good day,” Duke head coach Jamie Green said. “Our guys did an excellent job of playing with a lot of confidence and picking the golf course apart. The course is a great test. What I saw in our guys today, is we positioned it well and fought through the course to make it as stress-free as possible. We had really good demeanor and we had a magnificent short game from top to bottom.”

Georgia’s second-round 2-under 278 was the next-best team score on Monday and brought the Bulldogs up six spots on the leaderboard to a tie for sixth. They are 11 shots off the pace.

Clemson was the only other team to score under par in the second round (a 1-under 279), and the Tigers stand in solo second at 1 over. Texas and Wake Forest are tied for third at 4 over. Vanderbilt, the first-round leader, is fifth at 9 over.

Information from Duke Athletics used in this report