Life certainly isn't the same anymore for the women's golf team. Let your best player sink a 40-foot putt in her sport's biggest event and all of a sudden people are beating down your door.
"I actually give a speech every now and then," said Dan Brooks, Duke's head coach.
Of course Brooks also got used to giving speeches after tournaments in the fall, as the Blue Devils captured four of the five events they played in. That includes wins over some of the best teams in the country.
Then again, the coach of the nation's No. 1 team is likely concerned about just one speech: the one he hopes to give at Nationals after his team has captured its first national championship.
Such are the expectations for this squad, which is coming off a record-tying fourth-place finish at the NCAAs a year ago. Add what was by far the top recruiting class in the country, with Beth Bauer and Candy Hannemann, and the reasons are clear why some say this could be one of the all-time great women's teams.
"In our team meeting, I asked them what made them think they could win a championship," Brooks said. "I liked their answers. There isn't anybody on this team that doesn't think we can win this championship."
The talent certainly starts at the top. Jenny Chuasiriporn was already one of the country's top collegiate golfers before she stepped into the spotlight at the U.S. Open this summer. Last season she captured four events before going toe-to-toe with Se Ri Pak.
Chuasiriporn says her life has settled down greatly since the Open, and she's quite comfortable being back in college. On the golf course, several of her teammates may not let her relax too much. While last year's lone senior, Alicia Allison, could occasionally push Chuasiriporn on the scoreboard, this season Chuasiriporn sees several players every day who can give her a run.
Bauer and Hannemann have both competed on the international scene, and Bauer actually beat Chuasiriporn in this summer's North and South Women's Amateurs.
Duke has a number of players who can potentially shoot under par, and in the fall the ability showed. The only tournament the Blue Devils lost came when Hannemann and Chuasiriporn were competing in the World Amateurs, and even then Duke finished third.
"With what happened in the fall, I think things are laid out perfectly for us right now," Chuasiriporn said. "The fall was kind of our experimental stage. We knew we were good, and we knew we were good individually. It all kind of turned out better than we expected. We just complemented each other so well in the fall."
That's not to say there isn't competition on this team. Brooks calls it tension, and says it allows the players to push each other every day on the golf course. After all, Duke has players that one day may be facing off on the LPGA Tour.
For now, the tension helps.
"If we were all just running around happy, we wouldn't become a better team," Brooks said.
This should also be a better team because of its depth. Brooks calls Duke strong in all five spots, though he's not certain who will fill the last two. Sophomore Kalen Anderson was co-ACC Rookie of the Year last season, playing in all 10 tournaments and placing 39th at NCAAs. Senior Filippa Hansson competed in nine of Duke's tournaments last year and had the team's third-lowest stroke average.
But the Blue Devils' three other golfers, Anne Cardea, Amie Lehman and Amanda Loewen, could also travel. Their stability at the fourth and fifth spots is crucial, though Brooks is careful to point out that the top three still have to produce and that their performances cannot just be considered a given.
"We need to have each of those spots get better," Brooks said. "You can't just look at four and five."
And despite Duke's success in the fall, Chuasiriporn admits the Blue Devils didn't play their best. At the NCAA Championships in May, it usually takes daily team scores in the 280s to have a good shot at the title. Last season Duke had one such round during the NCAAs and finished 24 strokes behind Arizona State.
In the world of collegiate golf, however, it takes four rounds to all come together during the same week. The Blue Devils can win every other tournament this spring, but their season will ultimately be remembered by that one performance in Tulsa.
"We need to just keep Nationals in our mind and pretend we're always playing for it," Chuasiriporn said. "If we can keep dreaming of that goal, then when we get there it won't be any different. Right now I have so much confidence in everyone on this team."
If that confidence translates into results, Brooks might want to start thinking about giving that one extra speech.
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