WILMINGTON -- On Saturday, the women's golf team finally put together a championship-caliber round of golf on a championship-caliber course.
It was the kind of round that could have propelled the team to a repeat of last year's top-five performance in the NCAA women's golf championship.
Unfortunately, that Duke effort came on the final day of the four-day tournament, by which time the Blue Devils had sunk deep into the pack after three rounds of forgettable golf.
Led by the clutch play of junior Kathi Poppmeier, the Blue Devils posted the fourth-best score on Saturday, but that did little to help Duke out of its three-day funk. The players ended the tournament right where they had begun--in 11th place.
"Those first three days were so consistently the same, it's incredible," head coach Dan Brooks said. "It was like we were the masters of mediocrity."
In those three days, the Blue Devils posted consistently high scores of 307, 306 and 308 to enter the final round mired in 13th place--60 strokes behind the eventual champions, Arizona State. The Sun Devils walked away with the team title by 26 strokes, barely challenged by any other team on the par-72, 6,061-yard Pete Dye Course at Landfall.
"I am really disappointed," senior Pam Soliman said. "I thought we'd finish in the top-five after finishing fourth last year. I thought we could do it again, but we had some rough days."
Rough days, indeed.
Duke had trouble finding its rhythm in the early going. Every member of the team shot in the mid-to-high 70s over the first three rounds, well off the pace set by the top teams like Arizona State, San Jose State and Wake Forest.
"I definitely thought we'd play better here," Soliman said. "I really don't know why we didn't play better."
"I'm still trying to figure out why we ended up playing about 10 strokes off each day of what we're capable of," Brooks said. "You couldn't put it on any one finger. You certainly couldn't put it on anybody not giving it everything they had, so what can you say?"
The NCAA-tournament showing came as a surprise to team members fresh off a third-place performance in the NCAA East Regional held two weeks ago.
"The difference at the regional was we had a good first day," Brooks said. "It's not necessary to have a good first day, but it sure is nice to have one."
Despite the solid outing on Saturday, the Blue Devils could not get over the hurdle of their first day on the links in the tournament.
"If you have that first good day, then you can relax," Brooks said. "You don't feel like you have to make everything up. We got a deficit early, and so we got uptight trying to get it back."
And tight play does not yield successful golf. In fact, the Blue Devils even tightened up a bit on the final holes of the last day, costing them a few strokes that could have lifted them to an even better final-day score.
"Even today, we had a great round, but we ended up losing some shots on these eighth and ninth holes, which were like our 17th and 18th holes," Brooks said Saturday. "It took a lot of shots away from us."
Junior Kathi Poppmeier capped off the best four-day total of any Duke player by playing nearly flawless golf on Saturday. Time and time again, Poppmeier rebounded from bad lies and poor drives with beautiful chips and precise putts.
After shooting 4-under after nine holes, Poppmeier had her only bad hole of the day on the fifth, double bogeying it. Her 2-under effort--one of the best rounds of the day--propelled her from 41st to 23rd place in the individual standings and capped off another successful year.
Poppmeier was also honored by being named to the second team of the 1995 National Golf Coaches' Association All-America team.
Freshman Alicia Allison finished behind Poppmeier with a four-day total of 306 to qualify for a tie for 44th place. Soliman and junior Jamie Koizumi rounded out the rest of the Duke field, each with a four-day total of 307, which was good enough for 51st place. Since only the top four players' scores are counted, sophomore Liz Lepanto's scores were dropped in the team total.
The four-day affair also marked the end of senior Pam Soliman's Duke golf career.
"She really had a good year, and I was really happy that she was able to finish with a good round today," Brooks said. "That meant an awful lot."
As a Blue Devil, Soliman improved her play every year--finishing this season with five top-20 finishes and a third-place finish in the Duke Spring Invitational.
"I'm sad it's over in some ways, but I'm happy with the way things have gone in the past four years," Soliman said.
In addition, Soliman and Poppmeier were honored this weekend for their scholastic achievement by being named to the All-Scholar Golf team. To qualify for the team, a golfer must boast at least a 3.4 grade point average. This marks a repeat performance for both Soliman and Poppmeier on the squad. Soliman has now earned three consecutive spots on the team.
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