No. 3 Duke will play the Champions Course at Bryan Park Friday through Sunday at the 2014 Bryan National Collegiate, the team’s seventh tournament of the school year. The Blue Devils are coming off their second win of the season after wrapping up the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate earlier this month. Duke's practice schedule was disrupted leading up to that event due to this winter's severe weather.
“I’ve been impressed by the team,” head coach Dan Brooks said. “They have handled this tough weather really well…. It takes a lot of flexibility and organization on their part.”
The Blue Devils have benefitted from the superb play of first-year Yu Liu, who is currently ranked second in the nation. Liu captured the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate individual title, the first of her NCAA career. With the victory, she joined former National Players of the Year Lindy Duncan and Amanda Blumenhurst as the only Blue Devils to place in the top 10 in each of their first five collegiate tournaments.
“I’m pleased, obviously. Pleased, but not surprised that she could do something like that,” Brooks said. “The most important thing is that she’s just a hard worker. It’s been my experience that my hardest workers have been my better players throughout the years.”
Duke’s performance at last year’s Bryan National Collegiate was one the team’s poorest of the year, although it carried an asterisk. Playing without their senior leader in Duncan, the Blue Devils finished the weekend ninth out of 17 despite their No. 3 national ranking at the time, the squad’s worst finish of the 2012-13 season.
This year Duke will bring three of the nation’s top 15 golfers to Greensboro, as senior Laetitia Beck and sophomore Celine Boutier are ranked 11th and 15th in the nation, respectively. Competing with elite talent should provide the Blue Devils with an extra advantage on the difficult Champions track, which is situated on the shores of Lake Townsend.
“The wind comes off the lake so you get a lot of variability,” Brooks said. “It’s really going to separate out the better players.”
Rounding out the Duke lineup will be senior Alejandra Congrejo and freshman Sandy Choi, who is currently ranked 84th in the nation despite not playing in an NCAA tournament since the fall. Junior Irene Jung will compete this weekend as an individual.
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