With most eyes in the golf world on Hazeltine National Golf Club—where the U.S. upended Europe in the Ryder Cup Sunday—the Blue Devils will hit the greens in another Midwest city this week.
No. 10 Duke will head to Chicago for the 2016 Windy City Classic beginning Monday. The tournament will span two days, with 36 holes held on the first day and the final 18 holes played on Tuesday. The Blue Devils will compete at the 6,338-yard Glen View Golf Club against several other top teams, including No. 3 Southern California, No. 7 Florida and No. 9 Georgia.
The tournament will mark the college debut of freshman Ana Belac, who will play alongside senior Sandy Choi, juniors Leona Maguire and Lisa Maguire and sophomore Virginia Elena Carta. Belac begins her Duke career as the top-ranked junior golfer in Slovenia.
Depth has been a concern for the Blue Devils entering the season as the team only has six golfers on its roster and could be without Leona Maguire in the future as she attempts to qualify for the LPGA Tour. A strong performance from Belac—who sat out the Annika Intercollegiate to open the season—could go a long way towards helping Duke remain one of the top teams in the nation.
Leona Maguire comes into Monday's competition looking to improve on her third place finish from the team's season-opening tournament. The Cavan, Ireland, native finished 9-under-par and shot a 65 and 68 in the final two rounds to catapult the Blue Devils up the leaderboard in the final two days.
Carta appeared set to compete to the finish with Maguire in the Annika Intercollegiate as she found herself 6-under-par after 36 holes. But the sophomore had a rough afternoon with her short game and could not get a birdie to fall on the last day of action. Despite her late struggles, the NCAA champion finished five strokes under par and came away with another top-15 finish.
Duke will round out its lineup with Choi and Lisa Maguire, who will both look to improve from their season-opening performances. After shooting 3-over-par in the first 18 holes, Choi started to find consistency and was even par in the last two rounds of action. Maguire wrapped up her first tournament of the year at 12-over par.
The Blue Devils will see some familiar competitors on the course Monday as Southern California and Florida both finished in the top five at the Annika Intercollegiate. Northwestern enters the tournament as the defending champion after sharing the title with Arizona and Georgia at Westmoreland Country Club a year ago.
Following the two-day tournament, Duke will next compete in the Tar Heel Invitational Oct 14-16.
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