Duke head coach Dan Brooks takes pride in his team’s ability to perform well on tough courses, and his squad’s dominant victory Tuesday showed why.
The Blue Devils went wire-to-wire at The University Club in Baton Rouge, La., posting their first win of 2016 with a first-place finish at the LSU Tiger Golf Classic. The team’s three-day total of 881—16 shots clear of runner-up No. 7 Arkansas—was highlighted by an impressive performance from senior Celine Boutier, who earned her fourth career victory and first win since her sophomore campaign after carding three rounds of par or better.
Boutier asserted her position atop the leaderboard early for No. 2 Duke and never looked back. The Montrouge, France, native began the tournament with the lowest score of the opening round, posting a bogey-free, five-under-par 67—the best single-day performance by any player during the event and good enough for a five-stroke lead after 18 holes. By carding just four bogeys on the final 36 holes en route to scores of 72 and 69 in the last two rounds, she kept her momentum rolling and finished as the only player in the field without an over-par round.
The senior’s success this week was driven by her skill on the par-4 holes, where she went four-under-par—seven strokes better than any other player.
“She looks like she’s hitting the ball where she wants to hit it and seems to be patient out there, and she’s just doing all of the things that Celine does so well,” Brooks said. “I think she’s going to play her hardest all of the time, I don’t think it would make a big difference whether she was way in the lead or not. She only knows one way—she’s a competitor.”
The victory was a bounce-back effort for Boutier, who entered the weekend fresh off her worst finish of the season—a tie for 45th place at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in early March. Boutier did show a glimpse of this week’s dominance during her last start, though, as she improved 10 strokes between her second and third rounds, shooting 80 and 70, respectively.
Boutier’s total score of 208 left her 14 shots clear of the event’s next two best performers, who tied for second place with scores of 222. One runner-up was Duke freshman Virginia Elena Carta, who posted the best showing of her young career after rounds of 75, 77 and 70. Elena Carta began the event in a funk, carding five-over-par in her opening 10 holes, but erased the early struggles by shooting just one-over-par during the final 44 holes of the tournament.
“I think Virginia learned a lot this tournament,” Brooks said. “We were playing in wind, so she was able to use her power and her length a couple of times, I think that helped her. But mostly I think she just settled herself down and learned how to get a score.”
During the final round, the Udine, Italy, native notched five birdies and three bogies, jumping 14 spots up the leaderboard and besting the course’s scoring average by more than nine strokes. The tie-for-second-place showing marks the best finish of Elena Carta’s career.
The 6,237-yard course boasted the highest scoring average of any setup the Blue Devils have faced this year at 78.99, but it failed to halt a charging Duke team that rose to the occasion. Collectively, the Blue Devils did not post a single individual round above 78—the only team in the field to do so.
The rest of Duke’s lineup—Sandy Choi, Gurbani Singh and Leona Maguire—all finished at 12-over-par, good for a tie for 14th place. Singh had the most eventful scorecard of the bunch, though it netted her best finish of the season. The sophomore carded just five pars on the front nine during the entire event and finished 93rd out of 96 players in pars made, but also finished with 12 birdies throughout the tournament—tied for the most of any golfer. Singh notched four double-bogies or worse during the 54-hole shootout, but also recorded the first eagle of her career during the second round on the par-4 9th hole.
“It shows a lot of guts. She kept fighting and she wouldn’t let the bogies get her down, but I’m trying to figure out why so many bogies happened when she had the ability to get that many birdies,” Brooks said. “It’s a bit difficult for me to figure out.”
The Blue Devils will compete next in the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic April 1-3 in Athens, Ga., looking to earn their fourth victory of the season.
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