CHAPEL HILL -- The Duke women's golf team won the NCAA East Regional in convincing fashion last weekend with an eight-stroke victory over Auburn at North Carolina's Finley Golf Course, but apparently, not all are convinced going into the NCAA championships next week in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.
Coach Dan Brooks was happy with his team's victory, but believes the Blue Devils are not even playing their best golf right now. In particular, the ACC coach of the year thinks that Duke might need better play from the bottom half of its lineup in order to win its second national championship in three years.
"I would say, given the numbers we've been shooting and given the weather we've be in, we are not playing our very best," Brooks said after Saturday's round. "If you look at our third player, fourth player, and fifth player, their numbers are not as low as those players have played this year.
"This win does not tell me that we're the best in the country. I think we are, but it's not this win that shows me."
While the scoring of Duke's lower seeds was not optimal in Brooks' eyes, the solid performance of Virada Nirapathpongporn, the ACC rookie of the year, is another story. Not only did "Oui," as she is called by her teammates and friends, win her second straight tournament after winning the ACC tournament in her last outing, but she also tied a record for the lowest 54-hole scoring total in Blue Devil history by shooting a 210 over the three-day Regional competition. The Bangkok, Thailand, native distanced herself from the field, taking a huge lead early with a 7-under-par 65 in the opening round and playing consistently throughout the following two rounds (73, 71) to edge out Candy Hannemann for the individual medalist honors. Nirapathpongporn was especially content with her mistake-free, final-round performance, in which she pared 13 holes and birdied three others.
"I'm so glad about the way I handled myself today," Nirapathpongporn said after the final round. "I wanted nothing more than to come out here and play my game and stay calm. Lately, I've been getting more nervous and I hate playing like that.... [Finley] is a course we play all the time, so I was just saying Ohit to the target you usually do.'"
Meanwhile, Hannemann was outperforming her opponents as well, trailing only Nirapathpongporn during the event and living up to her billing as ACC player of the year. The senior followed up her opening round of 72 with a four-under-par 68 on the second day and a par 72 in the closing round to complete a round of four-over par, 212. In fact, Hannemann's only disappointment was that she could not surmount her teammate's overwhelming first-round lead to take home the individual medalist honors. But all in all, Hannemann felt good about her performance.
"I just tried to play the best I could today," she said after the final round. "I tried to shoot a couple under [par] to give myself a chance. I'm happy with the way I performed this week."
In addition to Hannemann and Nirapathpongporn, several other Blue Devils competed at the East Regionals last weekend as well. Freshman Leigh Anne Hardin finished with a 54-hole total of 224, while senior Kalen Anderson tied for 30th after posting a 77 in the final round Saturday. After falling into the 80s during the second round, Swedish sophomore Kristina Engstrom improved her play Saturday, shooting a 78 and tying for 50th.
Given this solid top-to-bottom lineup, Brooks likes his team's chances for success at the Mission Inn Golf Resort next week, assuming his team members play up to their potential.
"I think this might be our best team. The reason is because I now talk about a team where the fifth player has a chance to win and when they're not playing their best golf, I'm a little disappointed," Brooks said. "In the past, we've been really hot on top and it sort of dissipates as you go on back. So I would say, because we're deeper one through five, that increases our odds [to win]."
Another factor that might play into the hands of the Blue Devils is the fact that they have already won a tournament this season at Mission Inn. In September, the Blue Devils, paced by the play of Engstrom and Nirapathpongporn, won the shortened NCAA Fall Preview by three strokes over No. 2 Arizona just before the torrential downpours of Hurricane Gordon suspended play. Brooks, however, is quick to point out that Duke won the Fall Preview in 199 and was not able to transfer this early season victory into a triumph on the same course at the end of the season.
"We won the [Preview] last year and we finished 14th at Nationals, but I think it's good to have had success," Brooks said. "Any time you're going to a tournament and you have visions of winning there from a time before, you can recall the kind of feeling the team had there before.... That's always a plus."
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