Milli Vanilli once famously lip-synched, "Blame it on the rain."
Last night, 17 different women's golf teams were saying it for real, as the Blue Devils took home the title from a weather-truncated Bryan National Collegiate golf tournament.
The top-ranked and defending national champion Duke squad beat the field without hitting a fairway or sinking a putt Sunday, as its lead from the tournament's first two days earned the Blue Devils the win.
Duke, the two-time defending champions of the Bryan National, finished the two-day competition with a total of 580, putting it four strokes ahead of its nearest rivals, Vanderbilt.
The win was reminiscent of two earlier tournaments, both of which featured weather-shortened rounds. During Duke's 1999 national championship win in Tulsa, Okla., the last seven holes of the tournament's final round were canceled and the entire round was annulled.
During the front nine, a surging Arizona State team had the Blue Devils hearing footsteps, but a cloudburst and an eight-stroke lead after three rounds gave Duke its first national title.
Perhaps more vivid in the players' memories was the Lady Gamecock Classic earlier this month. During this tournament, the Blue Devils were relegated to second place after the tournament's final two rounds were called off.
"I'd like to say that everyone on the team plays with the same intensity from hole one to 54," head coach Dan Brooks. "They kind of got themselves tougher, after [the Lady Gamecock Classic loss]."
While Brooks' squad was excited to play, the conditions were unmistakably too adverse for any golf.
"When we got up [Sunday morning], it had been raining like crazy," Brooks said. "We pretended we were going to play and had a coaches' meeting, but we knew it would be rained out."
From a players perspective, Engstrom agreed.
"Some girls wanted to go out and play," the senior said. "But when we saw the conditions we were happy to not be out there."
Although an umbrella proved to be the most valuable tool in any of the golf bags for Sunday, the first two days were more hospitable to all the golfers.
"For the first two days, it was just beautiful," freshman Liz Janangelo said. "It was sunny, and it was warm out, which we're not used to up here."
The tournament's first eighteen holes featured blistering play by senior Kristina Engstrom, whose first-round 69 earned her a share of the individual lead. Both Engstrom and the Blue Devils sat atop the leaderboard after the first day, as Duke was two-under par with a 286.
Junior Leigh Ann Hardin and Janangelo turned in a 71 and a 72, respectively.
The second day of competition saw a drop-off in Engstrom's play, but the other Blue Devils picked up the slack. Engstrom logged a 76 and finished the tournament tied for seventh, but Janangelo's consistent play netted her another 72 and a sixth-place finish. Hardin also stroked an even par, and finished the tournament in fifth place.
"I played well individually, but I would have liked to play better on the second day," Engstrom said. "As a team, we knew that the weather would be a factor. We tried to play as though this was a one-day tournament."
Nuria Clau of Wake Forest, Kristy McPherson of South Carolina, and Courtney and May Wood, both of Vanderbilt, shared the individual title with a two-under-par 142.
The Blue Devils leave Wednesday for Athens, Ga., where they will compete in the Liz Murphey Collegiate tournament, hosted by the University of Georgia. The Blue Devils are hoping for a similar result in Georgia, but intend to spend more time on the course.
"Personally, I was looking forward to playing," Janangelo said of the team's anticlimactic victory. "But we definitely got the better end of the deal, and a victory is a victory."
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