Does incredible individual talent result in a national championship? For last year's women's golf team, it was only good enough for 10th.
Does arguably even better individual talent and a summer of various amateur championships lead to a national championship? The 2003-2004 Duke golfers will tell that story.
When the Blue Devils begin their season today at the NCAA Fall Preview, they will begin the quest for their third national championship in five years. The team, ranked first in at least one of three national polls for the sixth consecutive year, tees off this weekend at the very course where they will likely contend for that third title--the Grant National Lake Course in Auburn, Ala.
The team will face many of the same collegiate powers it will compete against for all the glory. But, despite the emphasis on the NCAA Championships, the team is vowing to take the season tournament-by-tournament if not practice-by-practice or swing-by-swing.
"[We want to] just go out each day in practice and know that we are focusing on winning a national championship," senior Leigh Anne Hardin said. "Then each tournament do the same and kind of use each tournament as practice for the NCAAs."
Joining Hardin in a strong leadership tandem is fellow senior Virada Nirapathpongporn. "Oui," as she is called by her teammates, is coming off her victory at the U.S. Amateur, the most prestigious such title. The Bangkok, Thailand native also won the NCAA individual national championship in 2002.
Elizabeth Janangelo was quite possibly Duke's strongest golfer in the 2002-2003 season. The current sophomore was Duke's top finisher in half of its tournaments and took home medalist honors on two occasions. Like Nirapathpongporn, Janangelo is a preseason All-American selection by Golfweek and the pair is No. 2 and No. 3 respectively on the magazine's best players in the nation list. She also had a productive summer, winning the Connecticut State Open.
"That summer of good play is going to help us," head coach Dan Brooks said. "There is a lot that they can reach back and recall now and realize that they succeeded in other pressure situations and that is everything in golf."
The team's lone junior, Niloufar Aazam-Zangeneh, will miss the fall season due to hip surgery that she will undergo next week at Duke University Hospital. The Lausanne, Switzerland native has been bothered by her hip for her entire Duke career, and she is expected to make a full recovery for the national title run in the spring.
"I am looking forward to this being a chance for her to finally complete some things she has been doing in her game, head coach Dan Brooks said. "She has been dealing with that hip and that pain since I have known her and I am happy for her that she is going to play the game without being in pain all the time."
Replacing the graduated Kristina Engstrom and Maria Garcia-Estrada are a pair of freshman--Brittany Lang and Anna Grzebien. Lang is coming off a terrific summer, winning back-to-back amateur events--the North-South Amateur and the Western Amateur. In the North-South competition, the Texas native defeated a very tough opponent on the fourth playoff hole. In the finals of that same tournament, Lang notched five consecutive birdies on her way to victory.
"I started playing amateur tournaments and got a lot of confidence out of those two wins," she said. "I was a little intimidated by the amateur stuff, but after I got into them I was relaxed and learned a lot."
When the team tees off in Alabama today, both Lang and Grzebien will be on the course for the Blue Devils. Following rounds of intra-team qualifying and its positive attitude during practice, the team is confident with the freshman duo's ability to perform on the course.
"They are awesome," Hardin said. "They don't need any help. Basically all I told them was what uniforms to bring. I help them with travel and things like that, but they know how to play golf and they are going to do well. I am confident and glad they are on our team." Barring a practice round yesterday, none of the Duke golfers have ever seen or played the Grant National Lake course they will compete on today. Through a friend, Lang learned that the course is not in terrific shape, and is not particularly challenging.
Recalling his experience coaching the team on the course in the mid 1990's, Brooks said that the layout is fairly hilly - a positive for the Duke team which is used to playing on a course with similar undulation at the Duke Golf Club.
And while winning this weekend's NCAA Preview event would be a major victory for the team and a huge confidence boost--especially for the freshman--the golfers will also be extra observant of the course, knowing they will be back in the spring to compete for the national championship.
"Just the fact that we are going to be there for four days, they know that we are going to be learning all the time and I will remind them and say, 'You notice this course tends to be this way' or 'We might want to work on these shots a little bit, there tends to be a lot of them'," Brooks said.
However, Brooks was also careful to point out that the course will likely be much different when the team returns in late May.
"Hopefully we are going to get three good tournament rounds under our belt and leave confident knowing we have a good chance [in May]," Hardin said.
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