Coming in at No. 8: Duke women's golf combines youth and experience to finish in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships.
Back in May, the Cowgirls stifled the Blue Devils’ bid for an NCAA title in the match-play semifinals with a 5-0-0 sweep. While the finals of the East Lake Cup in Atlanta produced a closer result between the two programs, Duke came up just short, falling by a 3-2-0 decision.
Shepherd took home second-place honors at the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational this past weekend at the Finley Golf Course, shooting a career-low 54-hole ledger of 206.
It is not often that two surefire contenders compete in the same event seven months out from the postseason, but that is exactly what happened this week on the outskirts of Chicago.
Less than four months have passed since Duke saw its repeat national title hopes run dry in the Arizona desert, but fall golf creeps up on you fast.
So yeah, the Blue Devils will leave Arizona dissatisfied. They played brilliantly down the stretch against Arizona State in the quarterfinals, but could not mount the back-nine charge needed to snatch victory from Oklahoma State’s holsters in the semifinals. But a quick peek at 2021-22 reveals that Duke is not going anywhere.
As the Duke women’s golf season draws to a close, there are a lot of great factors to reflect on. Among them is the performance of freshman Phoebe Brinker, who was outstanding in her first year at the collegiate level.
"We didn't need to get this far for me to know how good they are," Blue Devil head coach Dan Brooks said. "We could go out and have this championship, this match play day, again, and it might go a different direction and we might win them both. Hats off to Oklahoma State though, they played some great golf, that match was really something."
Late May gives way to one thing in college golf: champions being crowned. And much like the last few seasons, the Blue Devils are right in the thick of the chase for eternal glory.
The love affair with Duke culminated in Kim signing her letter of intent in November 2017. At the time, it was a safe bet to assume that Kim would be a major factor in the future of the program. Once she arrived in Durham though, Kim was thrown into the fire quickly.
With the top six from each region advancing to the NCAA Championship, Duke is now part of the final stage of the postseason for the 32nd time in program history.
For the 16th time, Dan Brooks is the ACC Coach of the Year.
Gina Kim calmly took her putter back, stroked her short par putt and then let out a shriek of joy when the ball found its way into the bottom of the cup. Duke had officially clinched the ACC Championship in dominant fashion, just two days after Kim took home the individual conference crown.
When the going got tough, Jaravee Boonchant and Erica Shepherd were able to get going, leading the Blue Devils to narrow 3-2 victories against fourth-seeded Maryland and third-seeded Virginia Tech.
Last week saw the second playing of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, an exclusive invitational for the top nonprofessional players in women’s golf. This year’s event featured 85 players, and close observers of Duke women’s golf might have recognized a few names.
Featuring No. 5 Duke, No. 3 Wake Forest, N.C. State and North Carolina, Saturday’s match play tournament at the par-72 Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh, N.C., boiled down to a 2019 NCAA Championship rematch between Duke and Wake Forest.
Phoebe Brinker, in just her third collegiate event, continued her eye-opening improvement with a second-place finish at 10-under.
From moving to the U.S. as a high schooler to spending the last 12 months in Thailand amid COVID-19, Boonchant's journey has been unique to say the least.
"Honestly I had about five seconds to think and kind of soak it in before I got drenched with water.... I saw my fellow sophomore [Megan Furtney], she was crying, looked over at my parents and they were crying, so I was just overwhelmed with emotion," Shepherd said.
Shepherd paced the Blue Devils with a third-place individual finish, despite the fact that she's still recovering from knee surgery.
