The six-time national champion Blue Devils were in the top five to start yet another season, but in the year’s first event found themselves in new territory—last place.
No. 5 Duke stumbled out of the gates in its season opener, finishing seventh at the Annika Intercollegiate after posting a tournament-worst first round of 5-over-par. In a field that included five of the nation’s top seven teams, the Blue Devils fought back to card a combined 12-under-par in the final two rounds Monday and Tuesday, but it wasn’t enough to overcome their slow start.
No. 2 Southern California won the event at the Watson Course at the Reunion Resort in Reunion, Fla., by two strokes ahead of No. 12 Arkansas and finished with a three-day total of 24-under-par.
“We were just getting started,” Duke head coach Dan Brooks said. “There’s something to be said for the kind of mental preparation that you get from competition, and we had really not competed. We had one day to get our feet back on the ground competitively and look what we did the next day.”
Junior Leona Maguire led the charge for the Blue Devils, overcoming a first-round 74 by combining to shoot 11-under-par in her last two rounds and finish tied for third overall. The world’s No. 1 amateur finished in the top 10 at the tournament for the third consecutive year, and Brooks said she could have won individually had a few more putts fallen in the first round.
The Cavan, Ireland, native tied for second in the field in par-5 scoring at 6-under-par in her season opener and continued the momentum she built last month at the Olympics.
“She’s striking the ball really well,” Brooks said. “She said she struck the ball the first day as well as she did the whole tournament, it’s just the putts fell later and they didn’t fall in the first day. Once they started dropping, if she could make putts that first day like she did later in the tournament, it would have been really, really special.”
Maguire and 2016 NCAA individual champion Virginia Elena Carta—who also tied for second in par-5 scoring and finished tied for 14th overall—were the only Blue Devils that took advantage of the optimal scoring conditions.
The wet Florida conditions led to a softer golf course, allowing for low scores during the three-day event. Although eight teams finished under par and only two finished worse than two-over par, no other Blue Devil finished in the top 35.
Senior Sandy Choi finished tied for 37th, junior Gurbani Singh finished tied for 47th and junior Lisa Maguire tied for 55th.
“We’ve been talking about patience. When you play at this level, you’ve got to be really really patient, and realize that a good bit of it is out of your control,” Brooks said. “I anticipated that there might be a little bit of putts not dropping, so that’s why we play hard and train and qualify to get in great fields, because the more you’re in that groove and the more you’re playing and competing, the more the putts start to fall.”
That sentiment was especially true for Carta and Lisa Maguire, who both missed time leading up to the tournament due to wisdom teeth surgeries. Especially with the Florida heat, Brooks explained that Carta was a bit tired early on because she had not been able to work out as much leading up to the tournament.
The team will not have much time to make adjustments before its next tournament—the Blue Devils leave Saturday for the Windy City Classic in Chicago Monday and Tuesday, but Brooks said he was not too concerned about the short turnaround.
“We feel good….You can’t win an NCAA championship on the first day in September because it requires training and being mentally ready and well practiced,” Brooks said. “That’s not what you are on the first day of competition in the fall.”
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Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.