Category: Women’s Golf

Duke women’s golf comes back to win UNC’s home tournament

Duke women’s golf overcame a seven-stroke deficit in Sunday’s final round to win the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heels Invitational in Chapel Hill.

The Duke women’s golf team picked up one of the most satisfying Blue Devils victories possible on Sunday: a win on the North Carolina Tar Heels‘ home turf.

Duke won the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heels Invitational in Chapel Hill on Sunday, combining for an even-par final round to come all the way back from seven strokes behind.

Despite Blue Devils’ junior Andie Smith leading the individual portion by two stokes through two rounds, Duke sat in fifth place at +16 entering the final round.

The Michigan State Spartans sat +9, leading the Tennessee Volunteers by three, but both teams faded away over the final 18 holes. No golfers on either team broke par in the final round, with Michigan State shooting a combined 10-over while the Volunteers could only put together a 13-over round.

While the leaders opened the door, Duke walked right through. Smith, who teed off on the fifth, birdied three of her final four holes to clinch a five-stroke individual victory at 7-under.

While Smith picked up an individual trophy, freshman Carla De Troia and sophomore Katie Li gave the Blue Devils an insurmountable advantage. De Troia finished with a 1-under 69 after making one birdie and 17 pars, and Li recovered after two bogeys in her first four holes for an even-par 70.

It all added up to an even-par 280 in the final round, the best performance of the tournament, to win by three strokes at +16.

The hosting Tar Heels, who began the final round one stroke behind the Blue Devils, finished fourth after a 4-over 284 to finish +21.

Lady Gators to host 2028 NCAA Women’s Golf Regional

It will be the first time since 2009 that Gainesville welcomes the top collegiate golfers for regional action. 

The Florida Gators will host an NCAA Women’s Golf Regional site at Mark Bostick Golf Course in 2028 after the association announced more than 240 host site selections for the 2027 and 2028 postseasons.

The other sites were revealed on Wednesday while the NCAA National Championships were tabbed for another two years at Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, California. It will be the first time since 2009 that Gainesville welcomes the top collegiate golfers for regional action.

Since regional play started in 1993, Florida has hosted them twice — first in 2004 and more recently in the aforementioned 2009 postseason.

2027 Regional Sites

  • PGA National Resort (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) | Host: Florida Atlantic
  • Sycamore Hills Golf Club (Fort Wayne, Ind.) | Host: Purdue Fort Wayne
  • Trinity Forest Golf Club (Dallas, Texas) | Host: SMU
  • Stanford Golf Course (Sanford, Calif.) | Host: Stanford
  • Old Barnwell (Aiken, S.C.) | Host: South Carolina
  • Vanderbilt Legends Club (Franklin, Tenn.) | Host: Vanderbilt

2028 Regional Sites

  • Mark Bostick Golf Course (Gainesville, Fla.) | Host: Florida
  • TPC Deere Run (Silvis, Ill.) | Host: Iowa
  • Eugene Country Club (Eugene, Ore.) | Host: Oregon
  • Texas Golf Club (Austin, Texas) | Texas
  • Seattle Golf Club (Shoreline, Wash.) | Host: Washington
  • Bermuda Run Country Club (Bermuda Run, N.C.) | Host: Wake Forest

NCAA Regional Format

Seventy-Two teams and 36 individuals are selected to compete at one of six regional championships over the course of the three-day event, each featuring 12 teams and six individuals at the selected sites.

From regional competition, 30 teams (top five from each regional) and six individuals (top individual from each regional) will advance to the National Championships to be played at the Omni La Costa Country Club in Carlsbad, California.

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Leona Maguire and Celine Boutier chosen to represent Europe at the Solheim Cup

Duke women’s golf alums Leona Maguire and Celine Boutier will represent Europe at the Solheim Cup in September.

Two Duke women’s golf alums will take the stage at the Solheim Cup next month. They’ll just do so for Team Europe.

Leona Maguire of Ireland and Celine Boutier of France, both of whom played their college golf for the Blue Devils, officially made the European team on Tuesday.

The Solheim Cup pits the 12 best American and European women’s golfers against each other for a series of matches over three days, an exhibition that has become one of the most emotionally charged events on the golf calendar.

Neither player comes as a surprise announcement. Boutier has been on each of the last three European teams, and she won her first major in 2023 as part of a breakout four-win season.

Maguire, who won the ANNIKA Award as the nation’s best collegiate golfer twice with Duke, has been on each of the last two Solheim Cup teams.

The European team hasn’t lost the biannual competition since 2017, winning in 2019 and 2021 before retaining the cup with a tie last year (due to scheduling conflicts created during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Solheim Cup switched back to even years beginning this fall).

The 2024 Solheim Cup kicks off on September 13 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia.

Duke women’s golf commit Rianne Malixi snags historic U.S. Women’s Amateur victory

Rianne Malixi, a 2025 Duke women’s golf commit, became the second golfer to win the U.S. Girls’ Junior and the U.S. Women’s Amateur in one year.

Duke women’s golf commit Rianne Malixi keeps making history in the summer of 2024.

Weeks after she won the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, Malixi won the U.S. Women’s Amateur on Sunday with a 3-and-2 triumph over Asterisk Talley at Southern Hills Country Club in Oklahoma.

Malixi beat Talley in the title match at the U.S. Girls Junior as well, a dominant 8-and-7 victory that included 14 birdies in 29 holes. On Sunday, Talley tried to even the score. The star from California built a 3-up lead through 12 holes in the 36-hole match, but just like their previous bout, Malixi sent an avalanche her way in the middle of the battle.

Malixi won the 13th, 15th, and 16th holes to even the match. Talley took two of the next three to pull ahead again, but Malixi won four holes in a row to jump 2-up through 23 holes.

Another win three holes later had Talley on the ropes, but the Class of 2027 star knotted the match with three wins in a row on the 27th through 29th holes.

Malixi, the future Duke star, sent the final haymaker again, however. She birdied the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd holes, winning all three to put the match out of reach.

At just 17 years old, Malixi becomes the second woman to win both tournaments in one year. In fact, only eight other women have won both tournaments in their career, and only three other women have won multiple USGA titles in a single year.

Duke commit Rianne Malixi wins U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship

One year after a runner-up finish, Duke commit Rianne Malixi cruised to an 8-and-7 victory in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship on Saturday.

Future Duke Blue Devil Rianne Malixi won the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in stunning fashion on Saturday.

The 17-year-old defeated Asterisk Talley, a top-10 junior in the world, 8-and-7 for the largest margin of victory in the event’s history.

Malixi, a native of the Philippines, heartbreakingly lost this same event just one year ago, losing the 36-hole title match by a single hole to Kiara Romero.

“After that U.S. trip I just practiced a lot,” Malixi said in an Associated Press recap of her victory. “I spent a lot of hours training in Manila. I sacrificed a lot of my social time, school time.”

This year, she finished in a tie for second during the two-round stroke play portion to again qualify for the match play bracket.

After advancing through the bracket, the title match felt like a watershed battle ahead of the first tee shots. Malixi, the 17th-ranked junior girl in the AJGA Rankings, stared down Talley, who had worked her way up to seventh in the rankings despite being a Class of 2027 prospect.

Instead, Malixi got her revenge on the event early and often. After the duo split the first four holes, Malixi won the fifth, sixth, and eighth holes before winning five in a row from 10-14. She ended the opening round with a 6-up lead and never led by a smaller margin during the second round.

Malixi will join the Duke golf program in 2025-26. She announced her commitment to the school in September 2023.

Former Duke women’s golf star Leona Maguire wins first Ladies European Tour event

Leona Maguire, a two-time ANNIKA Award winner with the Duke women’s golf team, won her first Ladies European Tour event in London on Friday.

For the first time in her professional golfing career, Leona Maguire won a Ladies European Tour event on Friday.

The Irish star and former Duke Blue Devil won the individual leaderboard at the Aramco Team Series in London, shooting a final-round 73 to finish the three-day tournament at 8-under. She defeated Maria Hernandez from Spain by a single stroke.

Maguire played for the Blue Devils from 2014-18 and became the first women’s golfer to win the ANNIKA Award (given to the nation’s best player) twice when she earned the honor in 2015 and 2017. She spent more than 130 weeks atop the World Amateur Golf Rankings, a then-record for the women’s game, before turning pro in the summer of 2018.

Now 29 years old with more than half a decade of professional experience under her belt, Maguire won the LPGA Drive On Championship in February 2022 for her first win on the big stage. She won the Meijer LPGA Classic the following June, and she’s finished inside the top 10 in three different major championships since 2021 began.

Maguire will also represent her home country of Ireland in the Olympic Games this summer, one of three Duke women’s golfers to make the field.

Three former Duke women’s golfers qualify for Paris Olympics

Leona Maguire, Celine Boutier, and Ana Belac all met the qualifications to represent their respective countries in Paris this summer.

If any Duke fans tune in to the women’s golf competition at the 2024 Olympic Games this summer, they’ll have three former Blue Devils to cheer for.

Leona Maguire, Celine Boutier, and Ana Belac each met the world ranking qualifications for the Olympics last week.

The two highest-ranked players from each country (unless one country has more than two within the top 15 of the Rolex Rankings) earned their way in until the field of 60 was filled out.

Boutier will play for the hosting country of France while Maguire and Belac will represent Ireland and Slovenia, respectively.

One of the most successful professional athletes in school history, Boutier already has six LPGA Tour wins at the age of 30. She won four times in 2023, including her first major at the Evian Championship last July.

Maguire put together one of the most decorated collegiate golf careers in NCAA history. She became the first golfer to win the ANNIKA Award as the nation’s best player twice, taking it home in 2015 and 2017, and her 135 weeks atop the Women’s Amateur Golf Rankings held as a record for five years until Stanford’s Rose Zhang torched every mark.

She’s won two LPGA Tour events during her professional career thus far.

Belac earned her way onto the LPGA Tour after a Player of the Year campaign on the Symetra Tour in 2020. She has two career top-10s in LPGA events.

Duke women’s golfer Katie Li set to compete in U.S. Women’s Open on Thursday

Duke’s Katie Li, who made the All-ACC team as a freshman last year, will aim to make the cut at one of the biggest tournaments in women’s golf this weekend.

The U.S. Women’s Open, one of five major championships in women’s professional golf, gets underway at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania on Thursday.

Considering the Blue Devils have seven national championships on their resume, there are usually Duke alums aplenty at the biggest fields of the year. This time around, however, a player currently on Duke’s roster will try to take down the 156-woman field.

Katie Li, who just finished her freshman season with the Blue Devils, will tee it up for Thursday’s opening round, kicking off the four-day event. Li made the All-ACC team in her debut Duke season after she finished the year with a scoring average of 72.67. She also won the Florida State Match Up after back-to-back rounds of 6-under 66 to open the tournament, becoming the 16th Blue Devil to win a tournament as a freshman.

Li tees off on the 10th hole at 7:07 a.m. on Thursday morning playing alongside Elizabeth Szokol and Yuka Nii.

Duke fans can follow her on the leaderboard here with coverage scheduled to begin on Peacock at noon Eastern time before transferring to the USA Network at 2 p.m.

Florida women’s golf standout earns All-American honors

Florida women’s gold standout Maisie Filler wrapped up her senior campaign with some serious hardware.

Florida women’s golfer [autotag]Maisie Filler[/autotag] earned a major honor on Friday after being named a WGCA Second-Team All-American. The WGCA honor is the first of her career and by a Gator since Sierra Brooks in 2019.

Filler was also named to the All-SEC First-Team and was a four-time conference golfer of the week recipient this season. She played in every tournament (11) and was in the lineup for the third consecutive season with eight times in the No. 1 spot.

The graduating senior won three straight stroke play tournaments, becoming the eighth Gator all-time to win three events in a season and a row since Brooks accomplished the feat in 2018. Filler’s medals came at the Tar Heel Invitational (first collegiate win), The Ally, and Moon Golf Invitational.

She is one of 12 Gator golfers in program history to win three individual tournaments and her season stroke average of 71.3 ranks second all-time for a single-season.

Filler led the team in stroke average (71.3), birdies (109), top-5s (6), top-10s (6), top-25s (7), low 18 (64), 36 (134), 54-hole (203) scores, rounds in the 60s (10), team-best finishes (6), par or better rounds (19), under par rounds (14) and tournaments (6) during the 2024 campaign.

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Duke women’s golf finishes 14th at NCAA Championship

Duke golfer Phoebe Brinker put together her second top-10 finish at the NCAA Championship to lead the Blue Devils to a 14th-place finish.

The Duke women’s golf team finished 14th at the 2024 NCAA DI Women’s Championship on Monday after the Blue Devils ended the four-day tournament at the Omni La Costa North Course in California with a 32-over team total.

Senior Phoebe Brinker led the way as she finished in a tie for 10th at even-par. The Blue Devil shot a 3-under 69 in the opening round and made 15 birdies for the week, including four during Monday’s final round.

Teeing off on the 10th hole on Monday, she birdied three of her first eight holes to reach 3-under for the tournament. Four bogeys in her next six holes prevented her from competing for a top-five result, but she birdied the seventh to pull back to even for the tournament.

Brinker also finished tied for fifth at the NCAAs back in 2021 as a freshman, and she became the 10th Duke women’s golfer to finish inside of the top 10 at multiple national championship tournaments.

Emma McMyler and Katie Li, who both earned All-ACC nominations for the 2024 season, finished in a tie for 45th and a tie for 70th, respectively.

McMyler stood even-par after two rounds, but a 76-78 finish left her 10-over for the week. After seven birdies in her first two rounds, she made three over the final 36 holes. Li made a par or better on 28 of her closing 36 holes, but a quadruple bogey in the third round and two doubles in the fourth proved too much to overcome.

The high numbers weren’t out of the ordinary at the NCAAs as only nine of the 82 competition individuals finished under par. While he praised Brinker’s finish in a release from the team, Duke head coach Dan Brooks called the North Course one of the hardest the team has ever played.

Anne Chen finished in a tie for 43rd at 9-over, and she and Brinker were the only two Blue Devils to shoot 75 or better in all four rounds. Andie Smith finished in a tie for 72nd at 18-over, and her second-round 72 was tied for the third-best round on the team.