The fourth-ranked women's golf team finished just better than average with a seventh-place showing at last weekend's Spartan Invitational in Fort Ord, Cal. Duke's final score of 963 left the Blue Devils 25 shots off of San Jose State's winning score of 938.
Sophomore Jenny Chuasiriporn led the way for the Blue Devils, finishing second with a three-day score of 226, just five shots behind champion Marisa Baena of Arizona. Junior Alicia Allison came in second for the Blue Devils, finishing 14th overall in a field of 77, while sophomore Filippa Hansson tied for 55th. Freshmen Amie Lehman and Anne Cardea tied for 61st and 63rd, respectively.
Chuasiriporn continued to flaunt the remarkable skills that last year made her the lowest-scoring freshman in coach Dan Brooks' 12 years at Duke. At the Spartan Invitational, she finished second behind Baena for the third time in less than a year.
"Jenny did really well," Allison said. "Everyone had problems focusing, except for Jenny. She had the focus and the play to make a great tournament."
"I'm very proud of both Alicia and Jenny," Brooks said. "They led the way for us and will continue to deliver strong play."
Chuasiriporn, the defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion, said that she was pleased with her play, but felt her main goal should be maintaining her focus through the next three tournaments.
"It being the first tournament, I think it was a good start for the whole team," Chuasiriporn said. "We've had a pretty good spring season to prepare for our three-week run of tournaments. I think we're all getting it together pretty quickly.
"I think individually, we all were able to focus on what we needed to focus on, though it should be interesting to see how we develop through the next three tournaments, being on the road so much."
Brooks attributed the team's relatively mediocre showing to the fact that this was the women's first tournament of the spring season. Teams from California and Arizona, which practiced in warm weather throughout much of the winter, claimed five of the top six spots at the Spartan Invitational.
"We were playing among a very good field and we were playing against teams which had already played one or two tournaments this season," Brooks said. "So I'm not surprised that we didn't finish in the top two or three-this was our first tournament of the season. In that field, seventh is a wonder."
In addition to Duke's tournament inexperience, the layout of the par-74, 6,240-yard Fort Ord Bayonet Golf Course also provided a serious challenge for the golfers. The Blue Devils felt unprepared for the difficult setup of the narrow, tree-lined course.
"It was a really hard course," Allison said. "It was really, really tight and it was a pretty freaky layout. It was almost like miniature golf. If it hadn't been a tournament, I'm sure we would have all loved it."
Brooks plans to continue working closely with the newer members of the team to help them maintain their focus through the long haul. He suggested that inexperience may have plagued Hansson, Lehman and Cardea in their first tourney of the spring season.
"I spent most of my time trying to convince [Hansson, Lehman and Cardea] to be patient" with their still-developing games, Brooks said. "Each has her own story, and I like what I'm seeing. I like where they're all going. There are some very good things going on in their games, and they will develop into mature players."
The Blue Devils believe that their recent history of NCAA Tournament success-which includes top-seven finishes in two of the last three years-bodes well for their future. The team expects the next set of tournaments to be a more accurate indicator of its ability than the Spartan Invitational.
"We are definitely capable of beating those teams, as we have shown before," Brooks said. "I'm choosing more of a 'stay the course' type of approach. We're doing the right things already, so why change them?"
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