Duke posted its best finish of the year this weekend, earning third place at the Tar Heel Invitational behind deft underclassmen performances.
The tournament, held at North Carolina’s Finley Golf Course last Friday through Sunday, featured 18 schools from around the country. The field included ACC foes Florida State, North Carolina, N.C. State, Virginia and Wake Forest, all of which finished behind the Blue Devils.
No. 5 Duke brought a young contingent, featuring two sophomores, two freshmen and a senior. Freshman Laetitia Beck led the Blue Devils by finishing with a total score of six-under-par, good for a tie for sixth place in the tournament. Sophomore Lindy Duncan and freshman Alejandra Cangrejo also finished on the right side of par, earning T-14 and T-16, respectively.
“I’m proud of our freshmen,” head coach Dan Brooks said. “They’ve done a fantastic job filling in here in their first semester, and playing some great golf.”
Even though the Blue Devils finished third this weekend, Brooks thinks they haven’t yet reached their full potential.
“We went 13-under for the tournament—that’s good,” he said. “We’ve got a little ways to go obviously. We didn’t win the tournament this year. But… we’re going in the right direction. We’re a team that can win, no question about it.”
The scores this weekend, however, indicate Duke has a lot of work to do if it wants to win at the highest level this season. Alabama won the event with a score of 28-under, finishing 15 strokes ahead of the Blue Devils. To reach scores in that range, Brooks thinks the team must improve in all aspects of the game, particularly putting.
“You can’t go 28-under without making a lot of putts. It’s literally impossible to do that,” he said. “And that’s where we’re going to have to do some hard work.”
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