Two more Blue Devils are headed to the pros.
After top-five finishes in the Symetra Tour money list, former Duke golfers Celine Boutier and Yu Liu have earned a spot in the LPGA for 2018, making it 17 that have earned their tour card after playing for head coach Dan Brooks.
Boutier finished third overall on the Symetra Tour in money earned this season with $112,044 and Liu finished fifth with $86,110—the top 10 finishers automatically get an LPGA card.
Boutier, a former All-American, finished her Duke career in 2016 ranking fifth in school history in scoring average and 10th in wins, and she needed just one year on the Symetra Tour to move up to the highest level. Liu only spent one season in Durham, but still made an impact—she earned second-team All-America honors as a freshman in 2013-14, when Duke won Brooks’ sixth national championship.
“I’m super excited to finally start my career on the LPGA because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Boutier said in a press release. “I just can’t wait to see how I can measure myself against the best in the world. It’s been a great year. Finishing in the top 10 was my goal and I’m so excited that I achieved it. I feel like I learned a lot this year, and the Symetra Tour was a great stepping stone to the LPGA.”
Boutier finished second individually at the 2014 NCAA championship, and Liu shot 2-under-par in the third round to help the Blue Devils finish two strokes ahead of Southern California before announcing hours later that she would leave to play professionally in China.
Liu struggled initially to adjust to professional golf, but steadily improved from her first season in 2015, when she earned just more than $8,000. One year later, she tripled that total to more than $25,000, and tripled it again this year to qualify for the LPGA Tour.
“It’s been a childhood dream for me to be able to say I’m on the LPGA,” Liu said in the press release. “It was my goal at the start of the year, and to be able to do that is just a dream come true. Being able to compete against the best players in the world and to show where I’m at, it really means a lot.”
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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.