On the leaderboard at the Franklin Street Trust Tar Heel Invitational, it never appeared as if Duke, who has now won this event five years running, needed any coming back to do.
From a first day, five-over 293 that jumped them out to a quick seven-stroke lead, the Blue Devils cruised their way to an easy 17-stroke victory over UNC, their closest competitor in the 14-team field.
However, away from the red and black numbers for all to see, several smaller problems lurked beneath the surface that Duke worked through successfully this weekend.
Most impressively, junior Kristina Engstrom shot three-over for the weekend to nab the individual prize, her first tournament victory since her freshman campaign.
"As excited as I am about the team win, I am just as excited about Kristina's," coach Dan Brooks said. "This is a significant win for her because she got over her hurdle of negative thoughts by confronting them. Negative thoughts will always happen, so you can let them become a big animal or you can eliminate them, and Kristina did that."
Down by two strokes heading into Sunday's final round, Engstrom picked up three birdies while only dropping one stroke to par en route to a three-stroke victory over Vanderbilt's Nicki Cutler.
"I didn't really think about my score at all," Engstrom said. "I just kept thinking about the mental part of it. That was my only goal of the tournament--to keep strong mentally."
All-American Virada Nirapathpongporn also had to exorcise some demons to leave Finley Golf Course with a mere tie for 14th.
On Friday, Nirapathpongporn shot a 39 on the front nine--matching the worst nine-hole score of any of her teammates that day--that on the outward nine while also marking a 42 on the back half.
As expected, though, she crawled her way back into contention with two 74s, one of which Saturday, amounted to Duke's best score in the damp and swirling conditions.
Despite their leader's slow start and relatively low final position, the other members of the Blue Devils shot low enough to eliminate any chances of drama concerning the final team result.
Obviously, Engstrom did more than her share, but junior Leigh Anne Hardin and freshman Niloufar Anzam-Zanganeh also pieced together top-10 finishes that advanced the team's chances for victory. Hardin finished sixth overall with a 10-over 226, and Anzam-Zanganeh ended one stroke and three places back of her with a 227, including an even-par Friday of 72.
While 17-stroke victories cannot truly be classified as dissapointing, Brooks still does envision improved shot-making and lower scores in his team's future.
"We can do better. We can shoot in the 280s," Brooks said. "What we need to do is not have the start like we did. We need to eliminate that which we need to fight back from."
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