Tag: Duke Golf

Two Duke women’s golfers make All-ACC team

Emma McMyler and Katie Li took two of the 15 spots on the 2024 All-ACC Women’s Golf Team, making Duke one of four teams with multiple nominees.

Two Blue Devils, graduate student Emma McMyler and freshman Katie Li, made the 2024 All-ACC Women’s Golf Team revealed on Thursday.

McMyler and Li took two of the 15 spots up for grabs among the entire conference.

McMyler posted a team-best 71.67 scoring average across her eight individual performances. She finished in the top 10 twice, including a tie for fourth at the Windy City Collegiate Classic after a second-round 67 and a final-round 69. She also finished in a tie for 17th at the ACC Championship.

Li finished her debut Duke season with a scoring average of 72.67, and she claimed the Florida State Match Up for her first collegiate win. She fired back-to-back rounds of 66 in the opening two rounds en route to a -12 performance, winning by three strokes over Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Lottie Woad.

The Blue Devils won the Florida State Match Up by 10 strokes over the hosting Seminoles, and McMyler finished in a tie for ninth.

Only three other teams in the conference had multiple players nominated. Clemson and Florida State both had two nominees while Wake Forest had four.

Duke men’s golf learns regional draw for NCAA postseason

The Duke men’s golf team will play in the Baton Rouge Region to start the NCAA postseason

The Duke Blue Devils men’s golf team is headed to an NCAA Regional tournament for the ninth straight year.

On Wednesday, Duke got drawn as the fifth seed in the Baton Rouge Regional, one of six regional competitions in the men’s golf postseason.

LSU will host the region in its home city, but SEC counterpart Auburn, who currently sits atop SCOREBOARD’s Men’s Division I golf rankings, will be the top seed and the presumed favorite for the tournament. Ohio State and Oregon will also compete, as will ACC foes Virginia and Louisville.

The top five teams (along with the top individual from all other teams) will advance to the NCAA Championship at the end of the month in California, and Duke made the cut four times in the past six years.

Duke won one tournament as a team this season, the Rod Myers Invitational at home in Durham back in September, but the Blue Devils finished inside the top six of every team event they competed in.

The three-day tournament begins on May 13.

Former Duke women’s golf star Leona Maguire finishes second at T-Mobile Match Play

Two-time ANNIKA Award recipient and former Blue Devils star Leona Maguire made the championship match at the T-Mobile Match Play this weekend.

Former Duke women’s golf star Leona Maguire nearly won her third LPGA Tour event over the weekend, coming up short in the title match at the T-Mobile Match Play on Sunday.

The Blue Devil unfortunately ran into a buzzsaw in the championship match at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. World No. 1 Nelly Korda defeated Maguire 4-and-3 for her fourth consecutive victory and the 12th LPGA title of her career.

Maguire, 29, played for Duke from 2015 to 2018, and she became one of the most decorated amateur golfers of all time. She won the ANNIKA Award, given to the best women’s collegiate golfer in the country, in both 2015 and 2017, one of just three players to win the award twice. Maguire spent 135 weeks atop the World Amateur Golf Rankings, the second-most in the history of the women’s rankings. Golfweek declared her the best women’s collegiate golfer of the decade in 2019.

Now up to 23rd in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Maguire’s professional career has come into its own over the past two years. She broke through for her maiden title at the 2022 LPGA Drive On Championship before winning her second at the 2023 Meijer LPGA Classic last June. She’s finished inside the top ten at three majors since the summer of 2021, and she spent two weeks inside the top 10 in the world rankings last summer.

Sunday was Maguire’s third top-13 finish in seven LPGA Tour starts this season, promising form with the first women’s major two weeks away.

Duke men’s golf finishes tied for fifth at The Prestige

After a lengthy winter break, the Blue Devils men’s golf team got back on the course and produced two top-12 individuals out in California.

The Duke men’s golf team got its spring schedule underway at The Prestige from Monday to Wednesday, a three-day tournament held out in La Quinta, California at PGA West.

The Blue Devils performed admirably in their return to action, finishing in a tie for fifth behind two standout performances and a stellar second round.

Ethan Evans and Bryan Kim both went low from the opening day at the Greg Norman Course, firing matching 5-under 66s in round one. Evans balanced a double-bogey 6 at the 18th hole with seven birdies.

Kim poured in six birdies of his own, all within a nine-hole stretch. He circled 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14 to wash away a bogey at the third hole.

None of the other three Duke golfers recorded a round lower than 74 in the first go-round, but the Blue Devils did most of their damage in round two. All five players shot a 72 or better during their second trip around the course.

Kim couldn’t vault himself farther up the leaderboard, making two birdies and two bogeys for an even-par 71, but Evans could. The sophomore fired a 3-under 68 despite yet another double-bogey, this time on the third hole. He also bogeyed 6 and 9 but birdied the first, the fourth, and the fifth before rattling off four in a row from 14-17.

Luke Sample and Kelly Chinn matched their teammates’ energy with a 4-under 67 and a 3-under 68, respectively.

Sample could have put together something scary good, with four birdies in his first 10 holes before an eagle on the 12th got him to 6-under for the day, but three bogeys over his last six prevented him from something eye-popping. Chinn, on the other hand, balanced five birdies with two bogeys in his round.

Overall, the five Blue Devils combined for 23 birdies during the second round, and the team total of 10-under 274 was second only to eventual champion Texas Tech.

Unfortunately, Duke’s third round resembled the first more than the second. Evans, who began the tie in a tie for second on the individual leaderboard, signed for a 1-over 72 after his three birdies were overruled by two bogeys and his third double of the week. He finished the tournament in a tie for seventh, six strokes behind Kansas’ Cecil Belisle.

Kim put together a 1-under 70 to finish in a tie for 11th on the week, including three birdies in four holes around the turn. Daniel Choi, the Blue Devils’ fifth golfer, also managed a 1-under 70, and Chinn mustered an even-par 71. Sample fell back two strokes with a 73 to finish in a tie for 45th on the individual leaderboard.

The Blue Devils finished first among the two ACC teams in attendance, with Louisville coming in solo 13th, but future conference foe Stanford finished in third.

Duke gets back in action at the Wake Forest Invitational on March 4-5.

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.