Duke slipped from its second-place perch Tuesday in Palos Verdes, Calif., as the Blue Devils carded a 21-over 305 to fall into a tie for fifth place at the Northrop Grummon Regional Challenge after two rounds of play.
No. 5 Duke finished Day One in second place, eight strokes behind leader USC, and on Day Two, the Trojans held onto their place at the top. USC leads second-place Pepperdine by just two strokes, and leads Duke by 17.
The Blue Devils could not keep up their torrid pace from the day before. Freshman Lindy Duncan played wonderfully Monday and shot a 4-under 67, which tied her for the individual lead with the Trojans’ Jennifer Song. Yesterday, though, Duncan came back down to earth with a 5-over 76. Duncan currently sits in sixth place on the individual leaderboard.
“It wasn’t a good day for the Blue Devils,” head coach Dan Brooks said. “We were doing O.K. at the start and we lost a bunch at the end—it leaked away. We were not driving it that well and we were not putting it that well. It was just an off-day.”
Two Pepperdine players, Lisa McCloskey and Taylore Karle, sit at first and second in the individual competition with scores of 4-under and 1-under, respectively.
Despite slipping slightly compared to some other teams, several Blue Devils showed noticeable improvements from the day before. Freshman Courtney Ellenbogen displayed consistency by firing her second straight round of 3-over, and Kim Donovan and Stacey Kim regrouped after difficult first rounds to improve by two strokes.
Senior Alison Whitaker struggled the most Tuesday. She followed up her excellent 1-over 72 on Day One with an 11-over 82 yesterday.
The third and final round of the event at the par-71 Palos Verdes Golf Club tees off tomorrow morning.
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