How Duke’s Ethan Evans followed up his worst career finish with his first college win

As far as college tournaments go, Ethan Evans wouldn’t mind forgetting this one. He carded just four birdies over three rounds at the Fighting Irish Classic two weeks ago at Notre Dame’s Warren Golf Course, including none during a final-round, 11-over 81. His solo-74th finish, a career-worst for the regular season, was good enough to beat just 10 players, and the Blue Devils, as a team, placed 10th, by far their worst result of the fall.

“I would say I took the prep for granted a little bit, just didn’t get myself in the right frame of mind,” Evans said. “The conditions were tough, it was windy, you couldn’t really fake it out there, and I just struggled to get anything going and had one bad day to finish it off.

“But I told myself that I was going to leave no stone unturned prepping for the next tournament.”

He kept his word, and it paid off.

Evans, a junior from Mercer Island, Washington, captured his first college victory on Sunday at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate to lead Duke to a three-shot win over UCLA in an event that also included top-10 teams Virginia, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt. The Blue Devils climbed two spots on the leaderboard the final day with a scorching 17-under round, though Evans grinded out his one-shot victory with eight pars on his final nine, holding off runners-up Charlotte’s Caden Baker and Virginia teammates Josh Duangmanee and Bryan Lee.

“Our team was pretty pissed off after Notre Dame,” Evans added, “and we wanted to come back and show all those team that we are legit, and we are a national-championship contender. … For me, I just had to shake off the bad mojo and get back to what I know I can do. I’m proud of how I hung in there until the end.”

Duke head coach Jamie Green and his assistant, Bob Heintz, noticed their players’ psychology was a little off after Notre Dame’s event. “Too many guys too swing conscious, too wrapped up in mechanics and playing golf swing,” Green said. So, they scheduled some meetings with one of the school’s sports psychologists to get the squad back on track mentally. Together, they developed individual gameplans, focused on process goals or results, before the players scattered for a weekend off to begin their fall breaks.

The aim, Green explained, was for each player to establish a process goal, something they could control before, during or after a shot, and then keep tally on their progress, like a report card, during each round at the Golf Club of Georgia. Instead of focusing on racking up birdies, Green wanted his players to rack up check marks.

“It revitalized us to a degree,” Green said. “We were energized because we had something that we were going to focus on that was both mental and personal, not physical or dependent on score. … They weren’t playing to win, they were playing to win their own gameplan, their own shot, their own hole.”

Evans’ goal: Acknowledge what might be uncomfortable about a certain shot, accept it, and then hit the shot and fully commit to it and be OK with the outcome.

“Every shot is not going to be good,” Evans said, “but it’s going to add up over three days.”

Evans started Sunday’s final round three shots behind Baker, the 36-hole leader. Evans had been in contention before, including at last spring’s NCAA Baton Roug Regional, where he held a three-shot lead of his own through two rounds before shooting even par and watching Texas Tech’s Bard Skogen, with a closing 6-under 66, clip him by a shot.

This time, Evans was determined to capitalize, even without his best stuff. He birdied two of his first three holes before carding just one birdie the rest of way. There were plenty of shots on Sunday that didn’t warrant a check mark, though Green was impressed at Evans’ clutchness down the stretch.

“In the moments where he needed it, he pulled off good shots,” Green said.

None better, Evans said, than his tee shot at the par-3 17th. With Baker in the house at 7 under after a 3-over 75, Evans missed a short birdie putt at No. 16 to remain at 8 under while Duangmanee doubled the hole to drop back into a tie with Evans. Now with honors, Evans hit 6-iron from 214 yards out about 13 feet past the hole to set up an easy par.

“Definitely the most well-struck, committed shot of the day,” Evans said.

On the final hole, a reachable par-5, Evans opted to lay up out of the rough, telling Green that with Duangmanee in trouble, he didn’t see the benefit of getting too aggressive. He’d go wedge-wedge and then miss his birdie putt, but Duangmanee would bogey the hole to leave Evans alone atop the final leaderboard.

“He got a little bit of help,” Green said, “but he was still able to close the door despite not feeling like he was on all cylinders.

“And to have a tap-in for your first college win really is quite gratifying.”

Evans will remember this one forever.