Duke is fresh off its first victory of the spring, back on top of the national rankings and seemingly in perfect position to challenge the field in its final regular-season event of the spring.
The only problem—the team will be tested against its best competition yet, and will have to do so without its best golfer.
The top-ranked Blue Devils travel to Athens, Ga., to compete in the 44th annual Liz Murphey Collegiate, but will not have their scoring average leader, sophomore Leona Maguire, along for the trip. Maguire received an invitation to the LPGA’s ANA Inspiration event in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and will not join her teammates as they navigate the University of Georgia Golf Course Friday through Sunday.
The tournament will be a true test for Duke as it joins a 12-team field that includes each of the nation’s top seven squads, but the Blue Devils are playing some of their best golf of the season. The team is just two weeks removed from a 16-shot victory at the LSU Tiger Golf Classic, at which Duke led the field during all three days of competition and had no golfer finish worse than tied for 14th.
Similar to the Blue Devils’ most recent event in Baton Rouge, La., this weekend’s trip south provides an extra dose of preparation for the upcoming postseason. The Liz Murphey Collegiate recently changed to a mix of stroke play and match play in an effort to simulate the format of the NCAA championship, allowing the players to become comfortable with the mix of competition styles ahead of the shootout in Eugene, Ore., May 20-25. Day one of the tournament will be stroke play, providing seeding for Saturday and Sunday’s match play rounds that follow.
“You can really gain great benefits by staying in a stroke play mentality when you play match play, [and] play your own game for the most part,” Duke head coach Dan Brooks said. “Then there will be times when you need to be aware of what’s going on with your opponent’s game, but those situations will make themselves pretty obvious. As long as you are aware, you’ll know that you don’t take unreasonable chances when your opponent is already in the ditch.”
Celine Boutier enters this week’s tournament after taking the field by storm in her last start, when she dominated a 96-golfer field and finished with a 14-stroke victory—her first individual title since 2014. The senior was the only competitor in the field to shoot a round in the 60s—Boutier had two—and sits just behind Maguire with a season scoring average of 72.4. The Montrouge, France, native carries plenty of momentum onto the par-72 track, as she finished a perfect 3-0 in the match play portion of last year’s tournament.
Virginia Elena Carta arrives in Athens with her game in top form—she finished tied for second in her last start at the LSU Tiger Golf Classic—but the freshman is the only player on the Blue Devil roster without experience at this weekend’s course. Elena Carta is still well-tested in match play, though, as she was a member of Europe’s 2014 Junior Ryder Cup team and also participated for Duke in the East Lake Cup last fall.
Lisa Maguire will fill in the gap left by her sister as she makes her first team start of the season. The Cavan, Ireland, native has sparse experience as of late—competing twice this season as an individual—but did tee it up in Athens last season, shooting 82 and going 0-3 in match play.
“She’s still involved with a big swing change,” Brooks said. “She’s going to go in there and just do the best she can, and we’ll just see how it goes. She’s made great progress and she feels excited about playing and that’s the main thing. She’s ready to go.”
Duke competed in last season’s edition of the tournament with mixed results, finishing third after a fourth-place stroke play performance followed by a 2-1 match play showing. Brooks noted that the team’s recent experience at the LSU Tiger Golf Classic should provide good preparation for this year’s Liz Murphey Collegiate, as the two events are held on courses with similar features.
Junior Sandy Choi is another Blue Devil golfer poised for a strong performance, as the Seoul, South Korea, native has not placed outside of the top 20 since September. Choi notched a tie for second place two starts ago at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate after scores of 71, 70 and 73. Sophomore Gurbani Singh will also return to action after her best finish of the season in Baton Rouge, where she tied for the most birdies made throughout the week and finished tied for 14th.
With Boutier, Choi and Elena Carta each earning high finishes in the team’s last two events, Brooks added that the depth that his team has shown is a valuable asset to have with the postseason looming. The ACC championship will be held April 15-17 at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.
“I always say that your best team is one where anybody on the team could realistically win individually, that’s when you have a solid team,” Brooks said. “We’ve got a team that’s getting there. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re very, very close.”
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