O.D. Vincent stepped into the Duke coaching position with the unenviable task of following a college golf legend.

He took over for Rod Myers, who died March 30, 2007.

“I haven’t tried to live up to his standard,” Vincent said. “We absolutely respect what he put in place and the expectations he set. I could never live up to that standard, so I said let’s live up to ours.

“I don’t think anybody could have lived up to it, so we took things in a different direction.”

That path began at the TOPY Cup in Japan and continues at the NCAA East Regional this week at Council Fire, where the Blue Devils are the No. 4 seed. Along the way, they collected one outright tournament victory, another shared title and seven top-five finishes.

“We’ve had a good season, but I don’t want to say we’ve performed as well as we would have liked,” senior Michael Schachner said. “We’ve been playing better lately, and I think of our five guys, any one of us could win the tournament.”

Winning the regional would clearly establish a new standard for the Duke program that has carried on through tragedy.

“The challenge has been to find the right way to communicate and find what’s the right fit for Duke,” Vincent said. “The players have been open and very welcoming. I didn’t pick them and they didn’t pick us.

“We’ve really come together, and our best golf has been at the end of the year.”

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