One year ago, Duke entered the grounds of Long Cove Club trying to bounce back from its worst finish in nearly two years. The Blue Devils snatched up the win they needed, carried that momentum forward and made a deep run into the semifinal round of the national championship.
This weekend, Duke has a similar chance to recollect and reaffirm its position as one of the best teams in the country.
The No. 2 Blue Devils returns to action Friday through Sunday at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, looking to jump-start their spring campaign as postseason play looms in the distance. Duke's golfers will tee off at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head Island, S.C., where they are the two-time defending champions.
The team’s return to successful territory comes at an opportune time for the Blue Devils, who saw three of this week’s participants—Celine Boutier, Leona Maguire, and Gurbani Singh—card their highest rounds of the season in their last event in early February. Duke has led after five out of its previous six rounds at the Darius Rucker Invitational, foreshadowing a week in which Duke’s golfers could return to elite form.
The Blue Devils return to the three-day outing with the champion of last year’s event in Maguire. The Cavan, Ireland, native carded the tournament’s low round last season with a six-under-par 65 on day two, finishing with an overall score of 207 and eventually winning the individual title in a one-hole playoff against Louisiana State’s Madeline Sagstrom.
Duke’s squad carries plenty of experience to the Pete Dye design, with four-fifths of last season’s starting roster making an appearance in this year’s event. Boutier is the only Blue Devil with multiple years of experience at Long Cove Club, returning to the tournament after two top-15 finishes in her last two trips to Hilton Head Island.
“[Maguire] and Celine, they’re just marvels,” Duke head coach Dan Brooks said. “They’re exactly what you hope to have. [You] want your younger players to pay attention to how they get after it. They leave no stone unturned when it comes to preparing for a tournament.”
Duke finds itself among a flurry of high-level talent this weekend in a 17-team tournament that includes five top-eight teams. The field features the top three teams in the country with the Blue Devils joined by No. 1 Southern California and No. 3 Georgia, allowing Brooks’ squad a chance to test its game against the nation’s best talent outside of postseason play.
“If I could play against the best every time we travel, I’d do it,” Brooks said. “I love it when we’re playing against the best.”
Three other ACC foes—Virginia, North Carolina and Wake Forest—will also tee it up Friday.
Sandy Choi—another top performer from last year’s contest—makes her second career trip to Hilton Head Island after placing tied for 20th at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge Feb. 7-9. The junior carded rounds of 74, 70 and 70 en route to a tied for third place finish in last year’s tournament, which the Blue Devils won by nine strokes.
After battling illness in her most recent start, Virginia Elena Carta will try and continue her steady freshman campaign as she rides a streak of three consecutive top-20 finishes into the weekend. The Udine, Italy, native was the second-best golfer in the team’s latest start, when she shot a a 71 in the second round—the lowest Duke score that day.
Golf Digest recently rated the par-71 Long Cove Club—which lies just off the Atlantic coast—as the sixth-best golf course in South Carolina. The track measured 6,221 yards in 2015, with water coming into play on many of the holes.
“This is just a good, solid Pete Dye course that’s got a variety of challenges,” Brooks said. “Any time we’re on a really good course, the better players are going to shine and we’ve got some very, very good players, so we like tough courses.”
Singh will round out the Blue Devil lineup looking to bounce back from a career-high 82 in her last start. Singh finished tied for seventh in last year’s 88-player field, making this weekend a chance for her game to come together in the form of another strong finish.
Despite the team’s slow start in competition to begin the new year, Brooks expressed no concern about Duke’s ability to quickly find mid-season form, noting that the team frequently struggles in the first tournament after winter break.
“[I’m] not terribly concerned about numbers to be honest,” Brooks said. “I don’t really compare numbers of tournaments because conditions are all different, courses are all different, so this is a whole new deal.”
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