The women's golf team opened its fall season competing with the best of the best at the Fall NCAA Preview in La Quinta, Calif.
The Blue Devils were not able to break into those elusive top spots, however. UCLA knocked off traditional powerhouses Arizona State and San Jose State with a resounding 11-stroke victory, while Texas settled for a distant fourth--coming in nine strokes behind ASU and San Jose State.
The rest of the teams finished well behind the top four. Tulsa, the fifth-place team in the Preview, fell 11 strokes behind Texas. Duke finished seventh in the field of 19 teams.
"The field is about as good as any tournament we're going to be in," head coach Dan Brooks said. "We talked about the possibility of doing well enough to win it. I think we've got the kind of talent on the team that could have done that, but I don't think we have the [proper] kind of preparation going into it."
In practice rounds recently, Brooks feels his team has been hampered by the rough greens it has been forced to play on.
"We haven't been able to make a whole lot of putts on our greens back home," Brooks said. "We need to do that in order to get the kind of hot rounds that will come in and win a tournament like this."
The Blue Devils started off the tournament with a dismal-sounding 315. The four players whose scores counted that day combined for a nine-over par on the final hole.
"The 315 is the only thing that really disappointed me," Brooks said. "We just had a lot of big numbers the first day. We didn't get off to the good start that I think we needed."
Despite the high score on the first day, the players seemed unaffected as they headed into the second round occupying 12th place in the standings.
"There seems to be an awful lot of enthusiasm--no one was daunted by that first day," Brooks said. "Everybody had just about exactly the same perspective going into the second round of the tournament as they did going into the first round. And that's what allowed us to shoot a 296 the next day."
Duke notched 12 birdies in its tournament-low second round, leaping to seventh place in the standings. Senior Kathi Poppmeier shot a 73 on the second day, followed closely by two freshmen, Jenny Chuasiriporn and Filippa Hansson, at 74.
"Jenny's a good player," Brooks said. "I think anyone on our team could finish real high in these tournaments. To be a freshman, Jenny's been very experienced playing out on the junior circuit."
The Blue Devils notched a 305 on the last day, to bring their three-day total to 916. The team finished 37 strokes behind tournament champion UCLA.
"Whether these numbers are good or not is not relevant, really," Brooks said. "By the time we get to the end of the spring, we're going to be in really good shape. Fall is such a preliminary time. Right now we're eight months away from the NCAA championship. I keep that strongly in mind.
"What we need to see now is everybody focusing and setting goals toward a certain way of behaving. If we can get that behavior developed to its full so it carries into the spring, then we're going to be ready."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.