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Duke women's golf enters postseason play at ACC championship

<p>Sophomore Leona Maguire will look to defend her ACC championship title when the Blue Devils head to Greensboro, N.C., this weekend.&nbsp;</p>

Sophomore Leona Maguire will look to defend her ACC championship title when the Blue Devils head to Greensboro, N.C., this weekend. 

Although the NCAA championship is more than a month away, history shows that a win this weekend puts Duke on the right track for another deep postseason run.

The No. 5 Blue Devils will make the short trip to Greensboro, N.C., as they compete in the ACC championship Friday through Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club’s Ross Course. Following a sluggish opening-day performance at the team’s last event—the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic—that left Duke out of contention for the remainder of the tournament, the team will need to bounce back to begin its postseason journey with success. 

The Blue Devils have never won a national championship without first capturing the ACC title.

“The pursuit of the win and how we pursue the win is more important than whether we get it or not,” Duke head coach Dan Brooks said.  “We’re going to hope to win, but we’re going to know whether we made a winning effort or not, and that’s what matters more than anything.”

Duke’s conference-crown bid will be aided by the return of defending ACC champion Leona Maguire, who missed the team’s most recent tournament to play in the LPGA’s ANA Inspiration. Maguire will return to this weekend’s course after posting the second-lowest 54-hole score in ACC championship history last year—a 10-under-par total of 206—en route to defeating Virginia’s Briana Mao in a playoff. The sophomore is the fourth-ranked player in Golfweek's rankings and boasts a team-best 72.2 scoring average this season.

A victory this weekend would net Duke its 20th conference championship, the most in ACC history and 15 more than any other school. Despite Maguire’s individual success last year, the Blue Devils were upset by a red-hot Cavalier squad that built a 26-stroke lead against Duke by the tournament’s end. The rout marked the only time in the last four seasons that the Blue Devils failed to capture the team title. 

“Last year, we played pretty well but Virginia [shot 27 under par] so, we can make a winning effort and you don’t know what some other team is going to do, but the important thing is what we do with ourselves,” Brooks said.

Despite being the team’s first postseason test, the ACC championship field does not stand out among those Duke has faced this season as part of the third-toughest schedule in the nation. The Blue Devils have gone up against 10 top-25 teams in their past two tournaments combined, but will meet only two other ranked opponents this weekend as they play alongside No. 17 Virginia and No. 23 Florida State.

Maguire is not the only Duke golfer with an individual ACC title under her belt, though—as Celine Boutier won the event as a sophomore in 2014. The senior will tee it up for the fourth and final time this weekend after finishing in 28th place last season. Boutier was named March’s ACC Golfer of the Month and is riding momentum into this year’s edition, as she bounced back from an opening-round 79 to go 3-0 in match play at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic.

Brooks noted that the past successes of both Maguire and Boutier are beneficial for building their confidence as they prepare for the ACC championship. 

The most consistent competitor as of late for the Blue Devils has been freshman Virginia Elena Carta, the only Duke player without experience at this week’s venue. The Udine, Italy, native posted her two best finishes of the season in her last two events, and is poised to use her full-swing power to take advantage of one of the shortest layouts the team has faced this season.

The Ross Course provides a true championship-caliber test for all 12 ACC teams in the field, as the track—named after renowned designer Donald Ross—hosts the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship every year. Brooks said there are several holes—such as the par-four 14th—where long hitters have an upper hand. The layout also features relatively uncommon Bermuda greens, but the Blue Devils face no adjustment as the Duke University Golf Club features the same type of putting surface.

There’s some rounded outside edges on these greens when you’re better off using a putter than a wedge, but mostly its just being familiar with those greens,” Brooks said. “It’s all very similar to what we have at Duke, so it should be good.”

Junior Sandy Choi will make her third start at the par-72 course, where she finished fourth and tied for 36th in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The Seoul native ranks third on the team in scoring average, but showed that she is plenty capable of leading the team. In March, Choi paced her team wire-to-wire en route to an individual tie for second place at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.

Sophomore Gurbani Singh placed sixth at the event last year, but will be replaced by sophomore Lisa Maguire, who edged out Singh in the team’s practice qualifying. Maguire will make just her second team start of the season, but carries experience to this week’s course as she posted three 78s in last year’s ACC championship.

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