Duncan, Duke dominate field in tourney win

On a weekend when Duke’s eldest players couldn’t find their rhythm, it was the young guns who stole the show in Georgia.

Freshman Lindy Duncan captured her first collegiate victory with scores of 70-72-71 to finish at 3-under, and No. 4 Duke capped a wire-to-wire win over a tough field at the Liz Murphey Classic in Athens, Ga.

Duncan led the tournament all weekend after posting a 2-under 70 on a windy Friday afternoon, and she used a sharp short game to maintain the lead all three days. Her competition among the 120-player field included some of the nation’s best—Auburn’s Cydney Clanton, the No. 1 player in the country, and Wake Forest star Cheyenne Woods, niece of Tiger Woods. Duncan, who already has two top-five finishes to her name, was able to tame a tricky University of Georgia course to earn her first tournament win.

“I had a plan going into each day,” Duncan said. “I just wanted to hit a lot of greens. The greens there are very undulating, but I just had confidence in my putting to know that I could two-putt, and I putted really well.”

Another Blue Devil freshman, Stacey Kim, didn’t finish far behind. After beginning the third round with four bogeys in the first five holes, Kim reeled off four birdies in the next five, including one on the 356-yard par-4 11th, a hole she had played at plus-three the previous two rounds.

Kim’s birdie haul vaulted her to second place overall, her first ever top-five finish, eight shots behind Duncan. Kim feasted on the back nine all weekend and was 5-under overall after the turn, compared to 10-over on the front nine.

“Just having three freshmen who shine like this is really great,” head coach Dan Brooks said of Duncan, Kim and Courtney Ellenbogen, who finished in a tie for 28th. “There’s big things, and there’s little things, and I’m happy about all of them.”

While Duke’s upperclassmen were overshadowed by the newcomers’ successes, it took a total team effort to secure the win. No Blue Devil finished worse than 37th overall, and Duke torched the rest of the field, finishing 21 shots ahead of second-place Alabama, the sixth-best team in the country.