Despite an impressive opening-round performance, the Blue Devils were unable to pick up the spring season where they left off in the fall.
In its first tournament of the spring, No. 2 Duke tied for fifth place after posting a three-day total of 878 at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes, Calif. Solid play from several Blue Devil golfers left the team tied for second after day one at Palos Verdes Golf Club, but the team struggled to follow up on a strong start and eventually finished 30 strokes behind tournament champion No. 15 Washington.
"We weren't striking the ball as well [after the first round], our long games were not quite as solid, and then the greens got faster." Duke head coach Dan Brooks said. "You get more of a penalty if you aren't hitting it well and the greens are lightning-fast. You just get beat up [and it's] hard to get it up and down."
Leona Maguire led her team’s first-round charge for the third time in four tournaments, carding a three-under-par 69 that left her tied for third place through 18 holes. Maguire closed each nine with a bogey, but managed to stay under par thanks to two birdies and an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole—the only eagle by any player in the opening round.
Returning to Palos Verdes Golf Club for the fourth time with Duke, Celine Boutier turned in a 71 to begin the event. The senior opened her spring slate with a birdie on the 360-yard first hole, but performed poorly on the par-3s — where she went two-over-par in four tries— to push her into black numbers.
The rest of the Blue Devil squad provided ample first-round support that allowed the team to stay just seven strokes behind the leader, Alabama. Sandy Choi and Virginia Elena Carta remained within a stroke of their fall scoring averages by shooting a 72 and 73, respectively, while sophomore Gurbani Singh rounded out the team’s scores with a six-over-par 77. Lisa Maguire—competing as an individual—turned in a score of 79 to start off her 2016 campaign.
Duke was unable to capitalize on its favorable first-round positioning and posted a second-round score of 298, the team’s highest single-round total since May and 13 strokes worse than its day-one score. Wind gusts and fast greens troubled the entire field—preventing any team from earning an under-par score Monday—but the Blue Devil golfers struggled in particular with the adverse conditions.
Five of the six Duke players in the field shot higher scores during the second round than in the first, with Boutier, Leona Maguire and Lisa Maguire all carding their highest scores of the 2015-16 season. The rough showing caused the Blue Devils to slip two spots in the standings and finish the day in fourth place.
The lone bright spot of the team’s second round came from the freshman Elena Carta, who posted an even-par 71 on the 6,017-yard course despite battling illness throughout the tournament. On a day where the course’s scoring average was 77.0, the Udine, Italy, native climbed 16 spots up the leaderboard and vaulted herself into a tie for seventh.
"It became a harder golf course and it caught everybody off guard," Brooks said. "We happened to question whether [Elena Carta] was going to play, but she ended up doing a great job and just sort of gutted it out."
The freshman found success by attacking the par-5s, draining an eagle putt on the 16th hole and a birdie putt at the seventh hole that yielded her a 4.33 scoring average on par-5s—tied for the lowest of any player in the 88-person field through two rounds.
Choi posted her team’s second-best day-two score, backing up her first-round 72 with a 74. The junior responded to a bogey on the third hole with a birdie at the fourth—the most difficult hole of the day—and played her next 13 holes at one-over-par until posting a double-bogey on the closing hole. Despite the rough finish, Choi found herself in a tie for 15th place after two days of competition.
After an impressive opening round, freshman Leona Maguire struggled to back up her performance and finished with a second-round 76 that left the Cavan, Ireland, native in a tie for 12th place after 36 holes. The freshman began day two on a sour note by double-bogeying the opening hole and was never able right the ship.
As the tournament moved into its final round, though, Maguire returned to her sharp first-day form and finished with a one-under-par 70. The freshman saw plenty of action to begin Tuesday’s round—carding just two pars on the front nine—but notched five birdies to counteract two bogies and a double-bogey. Maguire followed Elena Carta's example from a day earlier and earned her red numbers on the course’s longest holes, birdying each one of the three par-5s en route to a tied-for-eighth-place finish, the best of any Duke player.
"[Maguire's] second day and her third day were somewhat similar as far how she was striking it," Brooks said. "She was doing a lot of chipping [in the third round], and she just got it up and down. She's just so tough. She's really, really a tough competitor and that one-under-par could have been a much higher score if it weren't for her resolve."
Elena Carta and Maguire’s skillful par-5 performances were microcosms of a theme displayed by Brooks’ entire group, as the Blue Devils finished the tournament with the best par-5 scoring average of any team. Additionally, Maguire had tournament’s best individual performance on the par-5s, where she averaged just 4.33 strokes.
Duke finished the final day of competition with a total of 295 after a trio of 75s from Elena Carta, Boutier and Choi, who earned just four combined final-round birdies. Singh continued to struggle, shooting a career-high 82 that included nine bogeys-or-worse. The Blue Devils fell one spot in the team standings Tuesday, but still finished ahead of the two other ACC teams attending the event, North Carolina and Wake Forest.
Duke will hit the links next Mar. 4-6 in Hilton Head, S.C., at the Darius Rucker Intercollegate, where it is a two-time defending champion.
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