After two subpar starts and a brutal winter of weather, the Blue Devils needed momentum entering the busy part of their schedule.
For the second year, they got it at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at the Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, S.C.
No. 6 Duke captured the individual and team titles at the event for the second straight year, using a historic performance from freshman Leona Maguire to seize control Saturday before holding off Louisiana State for the 54-hole team title Sunday. Maguire shot a tournament-record six-under-par 65 Saturday and birdied three of her final four holes Sunday—including the 18th hole in regulation and as the first playoff hole—to capture the first win of her career in dramatic fashion.
And what made the win even sweeter for the Blue Devils were the results that finally came after months of battling tough Durham weather to find suitable conditions for practice.
"It was a great win. It's not that we haven't practiced, we've just had to force it," head coach Dan Brooks said. "We've had to force ourselves to get down there on cold weekends and cold afternoons, we've left town three different times heading south just to get some practice in—it's nice to see some reward for that."
Coming off seventh and ninth-place finishes in its previous two starts, Duke came out of the gate strong against a 17-team field featuring 12 top-20 teams. The Blue Devils shot a nine-over-par 283 in the opening round and sat in third after the opening 18 holes.
Freshman Gurbani Singh paced Duke with a one-over-par 72 Friday to get the Blue Devils off to a good start, then her teammates stepped up in round two to send Duke skyrocketing up the leaderboard. Maguire's seven-birdie effort in the second round after an opening round 73 sparked the Blue Devils' surge, but a one-under-par 70 from sophomore Sandy Choi and a one-over-par 72 from reigning National Player of the Year Celine Boutier also helped build Duke's one-stroke lead entering the final round.
The Blue Devils were pushed by the Tigers for much of the final round Sunday, but pulled away late as Maguire made her push for the individual title. Choi turned in her second straight 70 and Singh carded an impressive 69 to give Duke a statement nine-stroke win in its second spring start. The Blue Devils were the only team to finish under par in any round, doing so in the second and third rounds to finish at six-over-par and capture their second win of the season.
"The main reason we did well is they've been forcing some practice to happen," Brooks said. "They've come out when it's really cold and gotten the club in their hand every chance they've gotten."
For the second straight year, a Duke freshman stole the show facing some of the top players in the country. Maguire—who finished tied for 38th in the Blue Devils' last event and shot 81 in the second round of the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge Tournament Feb. 9—broke the tournament record by two strokes with her Saturday 65, carding four birdies on the front nine and three on the back nine.
The Cavan, Ireland, native finished in the top five in her first three collegiate events but put herself in position for her first victory after some impressive ball-striking on the 6,142-yard, par-71 course.
"I actually never saw her hit a shot [Saturday] because I spent most of time with [Lisa Maguire] and quite a bit of it with Celine, so maybe the answer is for me not to watch Leona at all because she shot 65 when I didn't watch her a bit," Brooks joked. "She said she struck it really well."
Leona Maguire still had to work hard for the title late in Sunday's round, as Louisiana State's Madelene Sagstrom—who started the day just one stroke back—shot 68 for the second straight day and kept the pressure on Maguire to respond to the senior's challenge.
Maguire responded like a veteran, trailing by two strokes with only three holes left to play. She made birdie on No. 16 before sticking a five-wood from 202 yards to 12 feet on the last hole of regulation. The No. 1 player in the country calmly sunk the putt to force a playoff, then on the same hole knocked a four-iron from 167 yards to 12 feet again and drained another clutch putt to earn a thrilling victory.
"Phenomenal," Brooks said when asked to describe Maguire's performance. "She said that putts hadn't really been falling and then they finally did. We saw some fist pumps out of her. I saw her pump her fist on 16 and then twice on 18, so pretty exciting stuff."
Maguire was the star of the event just as then-freshman Yu Liu was last year, but four Blue Devils finished in the top 15, with Choi tying for third at one-over-par, Singh tying for seventh at four-over-par and Boutier tying for 15th at seven-over-par. Leona Maguire's twin sister Lisa shot 81 each of the first two rounds, but bounced back with a final-round 74, which Brooks said he was very proud of considering the freshman's recent swing change.
Both Maguires and their teammates will now look to enjoy some much-needed time off before gearing up for their final two regular season events. And if the parallels between this year's team and last year's continue, the rest of the country better watch out.
"They were happy to be in sunshine today, that's always good for your spirit. They're going to be inspired," Brooks said. "We're going to take some time off at spring break. That isn't always the case for golf teams, [but] it worked for us last year and we're doing it again this year."
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