Once again, the women’s golf team’s ACC rivals just couldn’t match up.
Over the weekend, top-ranked Duke won its 10th consecutive ACC Championship in dominating fashion, topping second-place Wake Forest. Duke’s 47-shot win was its largest margin of victory in school history, including its previous 12 ACC titles.
“We feel very good about our performance this weekend,” head coach Dan Brooks said. “It was a challenging course, and there were some difficult conditions.”
The tournament was held at the Carmel Country Club in Charlotte, N.C., for the first time and the Blue Devils had no troubling adapting. Duke’s top four golfers took the top four positions, and No. 2 Brittany Lang captured her second consecutive individual ACC Championship.
The sophomore has now won six tournaments in her collegiate career and is tied with No. 3 Liz Janangelo for third on Duke’s all-time list. Lang, with her three victories this year, is a leading candidate for National Player of the Year honors, an award that Janangelo received in 2004.
The Blue Devils opened play in Sunday’s final round leading the Demon Deacons by 34 strokes. All five golfers shot four over or better as they pulled away from the seven other ACC squads.
At the beginning of the last round, Lang was in third, two strokes behind leaders and teammates Janangelo and Anna Grzebien. The sophomore fired a tournament-best, two-under 70, giving her a final tally of three over par, one better than second-place finisher Grzebien.
“I really didn’t feel I played that well the first two days,” Lang said. “But in my final round, I got the ball right next to the pin a bunch and didn’t need to putt much.”
The team’s only senior, Niloufar Aazam-Zanganeh, carded the only other under-par round of the tournament Saturday. After sitting out the Bryan National Collegiate April 1 to 3 with tendinitis in her wrist, she started the tournament with a disappointing six-over 78. Encouraged by her Saturday rebound, however, the senior took fourth place, her best finish since winning the Lady Gamecock Classic her freshman year.
“She’s been unable to play for about a month,” Brooks said. “It’s amazing that she was able to keep her mind in the right place and keep her game so sharp.”
Winning the tournament, Lang turned in nine birdies, tying eighth-place finisher Jennifer Pandolfi for the Duke lead.
Pandolfi battled some inconsistency on the weekend, tallying five double bogeys, but the freshman saw her score decrease every day—79, 76 and a final round 74.
“I would have liked to have played better, but it was great that I improved each day,” Pandolfi said. “I need to work on my mental game because sometimes after I birdie a hole, I feel like the game is too easy and I lose my aggression.”
Janangelo fired her best round during the cold and windy conditions Saturday. The junior carded four consecutive birdies to finish the front nine but faltered on the first two holes of the back nine.
With a four-over 76 Sunday, Janangelo lost her share of first place and came in third, but she still claimed her third team ACC Championship in as many years.
“It was really exciting to win this as a team,” Janangelo said. “This is something I’ll remember the rest of my life.”
Grzebien continued her hot play on the weekend. Having spent time atop the leaderboard with Janangelo, the sophomore took home second place, tying a personal best set earlier this year.
After winning 7-of-9 regular-season tournaments and now the ACC Championship, Duke will set its sights on the team’s third national championship, the school’s seventh.
Last year the Blue Devils enjoyed similar regular-season success, winning every tournament they competed in, including the ACC Championship. But in the NCAA Championship, they finished a disappointing third.
“I think we’ll need to play even better to win a championship,” Brooks said. “But I still feel like we’re in a good position.”
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