J J Grey in leading 10 at men's NCAARegional 

NEWS RELEASE FROM DUKE UNIVERSITY

By Jack Winters

LUBBOCK, TEXAS – The Duke University men’s golf team opened NCAA Regional action in terrific fashion Thursday with an eight-under 276 at the Rawls Course (par 71, 7,349 yards).

 The Blue Devils, who were paced by Jake Shuman and Turner Southey-Gordon, sit in third place after the opening round, just three shots off the lead.
"What our guys did so well today, and I know their plan is to do just the same for 36 more holes, is to stay in their best personal mindset," said head coach Jamie Green. 

"Sometimes the wave of emotion in our game can get the better of you and those guys out there today did a really good job of staying calm, cool and steady. When you do that and play to your strengths, good things can happen."
No. 2 ranked Texas posted an 11-under 273 to take the tournament lead after day one with Houston (274), Duke (276), No. 9 Texas Tech (278), Purdue (279) and California (279) rounding out the top-five. 

Duke posted a season-low round of 276 (-8) and its third-lowest round in relation to par in NCAA Regional play history.
Austin Eoff (Purdue) holds the individual lead at six-under with Kyle Pilgrim (Houston), Beau Hossler (Texas), K K Limbhasut (California) and David Snyder (Kentucky) one shot back. Shuman and Southey-Gordon are tied for sixth after each Blue Devil fired season best rounds of 67 (-4). 

Shuman and Southey-Gordon’s rounds of 67 (-4) are tied for the fifth lowest rounds in relation to par in Duke NCAA Regional play.
Southey-Gordon got his day off to the strong start with a birdie on the par 4 first hole and added another birdie on No. 7 to get to two-under. The Toronto native had his lone blemish of the day on No. 8 before getting back to two-under with a birdie on the par 4 12th hole. Southey-Gordon added birdies on No. 15 and No. 17 and finished with a par to match a career best round of 67.
“I took advantage of opportunities with wedges in my hand and I was hitting lots of fairways off the tee,” said Southey-Gordon of his first round play. 

“As a team we were having fun out there and really enjoying the course. We are going to put in a bit of time practicing some areas we can improve on this afternoon and get ready for tomorrow morning.”
Shuman began the day with four straight pars before closing the front nine birdie-par-birdie-par-birdie to make the turn at three-under. After dropping a stroke with a bogey on No. 10, he sank a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 11 to get back to -3. 

Shuman followed up with a 22-foot birdie putt on No. 12 to move deeper into red figures. After dropping a stroke with a bogey on No. 15, Shuman finished par-birdie-par to match his low round of the season.
“I am happy to have helped out the team today,” said Shuman. “We have played so much golf lately but this being my first round at NCAA Regionals, I wasn't sure how I would feel. My swing feels good right now and that showed today. 

"We have to go out and do the same thing the next two days. That's our goal. We are happy to be in Lubbock but we all know the ultimate goal is getting to the national championship in a few weeks.”
Freshman Adam Wood was also under par for the Blue Devils, finishing the day tied for 19th with a one-under 70. The Zionsville, Indiana native moved into a tie for third in the Duke freshman record books with nine under-par rounds on the season. 

J J Grey, a 6ft 4in third-year Georgia University student from Maidstone, Kent, is T7 on 67.
Eamon Bradley, from Mt Ellen, Glasgow and a third-year student at Southeastern Louisian, is T42 on 72.
Team-mate Lawrence Allan, also a junior from Alva, Clackmannanshire, is T61 after a 74.
Tomacz Anderson,  a Brocket Hall GC, Herts member and a senior year student at Jacksonville State had a disappointing round of 75 to be T64. Anderson is in his last few weeks at Jacksonville State.

Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com with updates also available on Twitter @Duke_MGolf.