Duke women’s golf opens spring calendar with T13 finish at Moon Golf Invitational

The Blue Devils women’s golf team ended the fall with a victory but couldn’t extend that momentum to their first tournament of 2024. However, a surging final round showed promise for the future.

The Duke women’s golf team played its first tournament of the spring season from Sunday to Tuesday at the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Florida.

The Blue Devils’ first action of 2024 ended with a tie for 13th place among the 17-team field with none of the team’s five individual competitors logging a top-25 finish, but a valiant finish offers promise for future tournaments.

After a four-stroke comeback in the Landfall Tradition for a victory to close the fall schedule, the Blue Devils seemed prime to capitalize on their momentum. However, Duke struggled to find any in the first two rounds. Phoebe Brinker, Emma McMyler, Anne Chen, Katie Li, and Rylie Heflin combined for 17 birdies across their opening 36 holes, and none of the team’s five golfers finished with a round better than a 76 across the second round.

The flat start left the Blue Devils at the bottom of the leaderboard with one round to play, a disappointing follow-up to their massive comeback to end the fall. However, Duke refused to throw in the towel, and a resurgent final day left a much better taste in everyone’s mouths.

Three different Blue Devils broke par over the final 18 holes in Melbourne. Chen, who started on the 16th hole, birdied two of her first three out of the gate en route to a 2-under 70. McMyler fired a bogey-free 69 to vault her up to a tie for 26th, finishing the week at 3-over, and Li made five birdies to put together a matching round of 69.

Overall, Duke ended the final day with a team score of 7-under 281, the third-lowest round in the field, to rise four spots.

Five other ACC teams participated in the Moon Golf Invitational. Louisville finished seventh, one spot ahead of Florida State and two spots ahead of Clemson. Wake Forest finished 12th, just four strokes above the Blue Devils, and Virginia Tech finished last among the 17 teams in attendance.