Although the Blue Devils are in a new calendar year, they will look to shake off the winter rust and get back to their winning ways of the past.
Duke will open its spring slate amid the Pacific winds of Palos Verdes Golf Club Feb. 7-9 as part of the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes, Calif. After a fall season that earned mixed reviews from head coach Dan Brooks, the team has been grinding to boost its play despite the adverse winter weather.
“I don’t think we played to our highest level by any means, but it was a pretty good fall,” Brooks said. “I’m seeing a very focused group. We’ve been in a lot of bad weather —as we always are in the wintertime—and they’ve shown me a lot of resilience and a lot of hard work and focus.”
The No. 2 Blue Devils began the fall with a fourth-place finish at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate, but heated up quickly, capturing back-to-back victories at the Tar Heel Invitational and Landfall Tradition. Winless in the 20-year history of the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge, Duke will look to use that positive momentum from the end of its fall campaign to improve on a ninth-place finish in last year’s test.
Sophomore Leona Maguire—who currently sits at No. 2 in the collegiate rankings—will spearhead the team’s roster after an impressive fall campaign that included a victory and three top-10 finishes. Maguire ended the fall with a 70.7 scoring average that was highlighted by an opening-round 67 at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate, the team’s lowest individual round of the season. During winter break, Maguire attended a practice session for the 2016 Curtis Cup Match, the premier women’s amateur team event held between representatives of the United States and Great Britain and Ireland.
Last year’s tournament leader for the Blue Devils, junior Sandy Choi, will also return to the event after posting a tied for 11th finish in 2015. The Seoul, South Korea, native improved her performance as the fall slate progressed, finishing tied for 38th, 13th, and tied for 10th in three starts.
She will be joined by Celine Boutier, who will make her fourth career appearance at the tournament. Boutier held the world’s No. 1 amateur ranking at the time of last year’s three-day challenge and finished tied for 16th. The senior has a history of consistent performances at the event, with another 12th-place finish in 2014.
Sophomore Gurbani Singh and freshman Virginia Elena Carta will round out the Blue Devils' lineup. Both competed in three tournaments in the fall and ended 2015 with season scoring averages of 73.4 and 72.7, respectively.
With four of the team’s five players having past experience at the course, there will be plenty of information for Palos Verdes newcomer Elena Carta to soak in from her surrounding teammates.
“That’s the best kind of transfer of information, when you can get the players talking to each other in the practice round,” Brooks said. “They’re the ones that have lived it, and we will definitely get our freshmen in the midst of the team so that kind of exchange is going on.”
Lisa Maguire will join her team on the cross-country trek but will participate in the tournament as an individual. The sophomore notched an 81.3 scoring average across three rounds of last year's contest and will tee it up for her second event of the 2015-16 season.
Although the team will eagerly embrace California’s warm temperatures, the trip west will not be free of challenging adjustments. The greens at Palos Verde Golf Club consist of poa annua, a grass type that is typically bumpier and less uniform than the Bermuda grass found at Duke's home course.
“We see it in patches [in Durham] but we don’t have entire greens that are poa,” Brooks said. “I think within a practice round you pretty much get used to it. It’s a little different, and it’s just a matter of being on it.”
Brooks also noted that in past years, the greens have been cut short enough that the grass' unusual growth patterns are kept in control, minimizing the players’ need to adjust.
The tournament will provide stiff competition for Duke as it shakes off the rust of a three-month hiatus. Four other top-10 teams highlight the field, including No. 1 Southern California, which took down Duke 4-1 in match play during November’s East Lake Cup.
The field will also feature Alabama senior Emma Talley, the reigning NCAA individual champion. In the tournament’s final nine holes of stroke play in May, Talley overcame a one-stroke deficit to Leona Maguire and finished ahead of the Cavan, Ireland, native by a single shot.
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