Duke men’s golf is wasting no time getting back to work. The Blue Devils open their 2026-27 season this weekend at the Sahalee Players Championship in Sammamish, Washington, with the 54-hole event set for Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 12-13, at Sahalee Country Club.
It’s a sharp opening test for Bob Heintz’s group, now entering its second season under the head coach. Duke is stepping into a 12-team field loaded with top-50 programs from last season’s Scoreboard rankings, including seven teams that finished in the top 20.
Florida, Oklahoma State and North Carolina headline that group, while Arizona, Pepperdine, Arizona State and Illinois are also in the mix. The rest of the field features UCLA, Duke, San Diego State, Washington and California.
The tournament will be played on Sahalee’s South and North courses, with the setup listed at par 72 and 7,007 yards. Teams are scheduled to play 36 holes on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.
ET, followed by Sunday’s final round at 10:20 a.m. ET.
Duke arrives with plenty to build on after last season’s run. The Blue Devils piled up seven top-five finishes in 2025-26, won the Rod Myers Invitational and added four runner-up results.
They moved through the NCAA Marana Regional and finished 13th at the NCAA Championship, their best national showing since 2018. Along the way, Duke set a program record with 27 under-par team rounds and finished with the second-lowest single-season scoring average in school history.
Senior Bryan Kim anchors the five-man lineup and returns after a huge junior year. Kim posted a 70.41 stroke average, good for the second-best single-season mark in Duke history, and set school records with 28 par-or-better rounds, 24 under-par rounds and 18 rounds in the 60s.
The Brookeville, Maryland, native won twice, taking medalist honors at both the Bryan Bros Collegiate and the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate. He also picked up All-ACC, Golfweek third-team All-America and PING All-America honorable mention recognition before entering his senior season as a Golfweek preseason second-team All-American.
Sahalee is familiar ground for Kim. He made his collegiate debut there in 2023, tying for 34th while Duke finished fifth in the first edition of the Sahalee Players Championship as a collegiate team event. The Blue Devils were back in 2024 and again placed fifth.
Kim is joined in the lineup by juniors Sam Mukherjee, John Hiller and Ollie Mukherjee, plus sophomore transfer Carson Looney. Freshman Clark Mason will play as an individual and make his collegiate debut. Duke’s roster for 2026-27 includes four newcomers and six returning players.
Ollie Mukherjee played in eight tournaments and 25 rounds last season, including both NCAA postseason events, and turned in a career-best 4-under-par 68 at the NCAA Marana Regional. He finished the year with a 74.32 scoring average. Sam Mukherjee appeared in six tournaments and shot 74.44 over 18 rounds, while Hiller also played in six events and posted a 75.22 average.
Looney arrives from VCU after being named the 2026 Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year and earning All-Atlantic 10 honors. The Bethesda, Maryland, native led VCU with a 72.21 scoring average as a freshman, had four top-10 finishes, won twice and then finished second at the Atlantic 10 Championship with a 9-under-par 207.
Mason, from St. Petersburg, Florida, is one of three freshmen on the roster and will be the first of Duke’s newcomers from the 2026 signing class to compete collegiately.
Live scoring will be available throughout the tournament through Scoreboard powered by Clippd.
After Sahalee, Duke heads back to Durham for the Rod Myers Invitational at Duke University Golf Club on Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 21-22. The Blue Devils will try to defend their 2025 team title after opening Heintz’s first season with a 20-under-par 844 and a win in the event.
In Other News...
Duke's Huge Road Win Came With One Worry Fans Can't Ignore
Dukes 31-27 road win at Illinois gave the Blue Devils a valuable early-season rsum piece, and it came with a lot to like on both sides of the ball. Walker Eget managed the offense well, Jonah Burton provided the top receiving spark, and Evan Smith delivered the kind of defensive play that can swing a game away from home.
Still, the final minutes left one concern hanging over an otherwise encouraging night. Egets late injury was enough to put a brief scare into the Duke sideline, and while the offense held together, the Blue Devils are now left hoping their quarterback can keep building on that performance. Jared Richardson, meanwhile, is still waiting for his season to catch up to the rest of the attack. [Read more 🡒]
Former Duke Star Mark Williams Hit With Another Tough NBA Setback
Former Duke center Mark Williams is facing another setback in the NBA, where his career has already been shaped by injuries and interruptions. Now with the Phoenix Suns, Williams is coming off a summer that was supposed to build momentum after four professional seasons, but instead has turned into another frustrating stop on the road.
The issue traces back to an offseason workout, where he suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Williams had surgery to repair the injury and is expected to be out for an extended period, leaving yet another question mark around a former Blue Devil whose talent has never been the concern, only the availability. [Read more 🡒]
Duke Is Hanging Around At Illinois For One Very Revealing Reason
Duke is still in the thick of its non-conference game at Illinois after a first half that swung back and forth, with the Blue Devils answering early pressure and finding enough offense to keep the margin tight. Illinois built its lead with a sharp passing start and the kind of early rhythm that put Duke on its heels, but the Blue Devils stayed attached thanks to a run game that kept producing usable drives and helped prevent the game from getting away.
Nate Sheppard has been the centerpiece of that response, giving Duke a much-needed spark as both a runner and a receiver while the Blue Devils leaned on him to steady the offense. Both teams also made their share of fourth-down gambles, underscoring how little separation there has been, and Duke heads into the second half still with a chance to turn an uneven opening 30 minutes into something bigger. [Read more 🡒]