After winning the NCAA Fall Preview last October, head coach Dan Brooks was not quite ready for the fall season to come to a close.
“I personally wish we had another tournament,” Brooks said.
Brooks’s enthusiasm was not surprising considering his team overcame a 10-stroke deficit to upset then-No. 1 UCLA and outduel then-No. 4 Auburn by a single stroke in the Blue Devils’ final and strongest showing of the fall.
“It was a great way to end the fall,” Brooks said. “It was a culmination of a lot of hard work and some work with swings. It was nice to have a reward at the end.”
Following the success of the NCAA Fall Preview, the No. 16 Blue Devils enjoyed a well-deserved winter break from collegiate play. Brooks stressed the importance of relaxation for his team during this brief winter hiatus.
“More than anything, I want them to take time off and get away from it,” Brooks said in the fall. “Our season is long, and they also play in the summertime. They really don’t get much of a break the entire year, so I’d really like them to take a break in the wintertime.”
Unable to stay away from the course, freshmen Courtney Ellenbogen and Lindy Duncan both participated in amateur tournaments this January. Ellenbogen registered a fifth-place finish at the Harder Hall Invitational January in Sebring, Fla., while Duncan won the Dixie Amateur Championship by five strokes in Coral Springs, Fla.
Ellenbogen and Duncan are joined by Stacey Kim to round out a talented freshman class. Making up half of the Duke roster, the freshmen demonstrated their ability to compete at the collegiate level this fall, accumulating seven top-20 finishes. Further, Duncan led the team with a 72.60 stroke average.
“These are freshman, but they have played a lot of competition,” Brooks said. “We saw that in the fall, whenever we had our best field, that is when the three freshmen played their best golf. That tells me that they are capable of playing their best when it matters most.”
Seniors Yu Young Lee and Alison Whitaker, along with junior Kim Donovan, round out the rest of the squad. Whitaker posted the top score at the NCAA Fall Preview, shooting a 1-over 217, and Donovan led the team at the Mason Rudolph Women’s Championship in September, so the freshmen will have plenty of leadership to emulate. Ellenbogen and Duncan have already both posted top finishes for Duke in tournaments, including Ellenbogen’s first-place team finish that earned her fourth place overall at the Tar Heel Invitational in October.
The young Duke team will kick off its spring season Feb. 8, as it competes in the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in Los Angeles, Calif. Four of the top five teams in the nation will be present as the Blue Devils jump feet first into what is set to be an exciting season.
“Every tournament we play in, we try to win,” Brooks said. “We just play our game and stay focused on what we can control, it’s all about the process. We are just going to go in and play one shot at a time, one hole at a time, and see how we come out.”
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