After going toe-to-toe against one of the best teams in the country in a tournament featuring the same format that will be used in the NCAA Championship, Duke is one step closer to being postseason-ready.
Battling some of the best competition in the country, the Blue Devils put together yet another strong team performance to take third at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic Sunday. The four-round tournament played at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Ga., featured a mix of stroke and match play that mirrors the new format of this year’s NCAA Championship.
In Friday’s stroke play round, No. 3 Duke finished with 310 strokes—a 22-over-par team ledger—to capture the fourth seed in the ensuing match play rounds. Led by the nation’s top-ranked golfer in freshman Leona Maguire, the Blue Devils dispatched fifth-seeded Baylor 3-2 Saturday before falling to Southern California—the No. 2 team in the nation—4-1. On Sunday, Duke notched a decisive 4-1 victory against No. 9 Northwestern to end the tournament on a high note and secure its top-three finish.
“It was a good tournament to come to because of the stroke play, match play combination, which is what our NCAA championship is going to be,” head coach Dan Brooks said. “You’re still playing your game and doing the best you can to get the lowest score, but there are a few decisions you might make in match play that are different than regular stroke play.”
The match-play format places a greater emphasis on head-to-head competition, and forces golfers to make adjustments to their game in response to their opponent. If a player notices that her opponent is struggling, she might take a more conservative approach and aim to maintain the lead. Conversely, match play can also encourage golfers to opt for more aggressive strategy if their opponent has already placed the ball near the pin.
Making such adjustments will be absolutely crucial when the NCAA Championship rolls around, and Brooks hopes that the practice the Blue Devils got at the Liz Murphey Collegiate will pay dividends come May.
Duke began match play against Big 12 foe Baylor. Freshman Gurbani Singh needed only 13 holes to secure her match, notching birdies on 15 and 17 en route to her five-hole victory. Following the trend started by the New Delhi native, Maguire and junior Celine Boutier each downed their opponents with holes to spare to clinch the win.
Although she did not win, freshman Lisa Maguire also impressed her head coach even though she fell in a hotly contested battle to Baylor junior Laura Lonardi that came down to the final hole. After falling behind by two holes midway through the round, Maguire mustered an impressive rally, showing that the hard work she is putting in between events could start paying off soon.
“Maguire has done a great job given that she is only a freshman and going through a swing change,” Brooks said. “She is working hard on her mechanics.”
In the second round of match play, Duke challenged the top-ranked Trojans. Hampered by a slow start, the Blue Devils fell to Southern California despite a valiant comeback effort. Boutier, a Montrouge, France, native, posted Duke’s only victory against the Trojans, coming back from four holes down to stun her opponent, Gabriella Then.
The Duke junior made birdie on only one hole but played much more consistently than the Southern California sophomore—recording only three bogeys compared to Then’s seven. Ultimately, Boutier’s steadiness proved to be the difference-maker, as the Blue Devil golfer clinched the win on a par finish, undercutting a Then bogey.
Despite the losing outcome, Duke played arguably its best golf of the weekend against the top-ranked team in the country, providing a glimpse of the potential of this young team.
“We really played well against Southern California,” Brooks said. “We just didn’t come up on the winning end. It’s always a great experience [to play the best]. It’s possible that we will play Southern California again, and it’s always nice to butt heads with somebody that you will be playing again in the future.”
Leona Maguire struggled in her match against Trojan junior Kyung Kim. The freshman bogeyed three of her first four holes and struggled to make up ground down the stretch.
The slow start, however, was just one blemish on an otherwise fantastic weekend for the Cavan, Ireland, native. Fresh off winning the individual title at the Darius Rucker Invitational, Maguire appears poised to head into the postseason playing her best golf.
“Leona Maguire is such a competitor,” Brooks said. “She got beat, but she battled hard, played a lot of nice holes and just didn’t come up on the winning end of it. Sometimes that’s the way it goes.”
After losing a hard-fought battle to Southern California, the Blue Devils leave Athens with much more than a third-place trophy—they leave with experience they can use in their regular season finale, the PIng/ASU Invitational, starting April 10.
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