NCAA Women's Golf Championship

[msdukie]

Let's hope Duke women's golf can salvage something from this athletics season.

Well, women's golf didn't win an ACC title, so no...

[sagegrouse]

First round play ended with Duke tied for the lead with Stanford and four shots ahead of Baylor and the USC Trojans.

In today's play, Stanford is +7 playing holes 2-6. Duke and USC tee off in the afternoon round.

[burnspbesq]

Stanford has really blown up. +17 on the day, playing holes 9-15.

[roywhite]

An awful start for Duke. None of our players have gone more than 3 holes, and the team is +5. Everybody had a bogey or worse on the opening hole (they started on the 10th).

[BigWayne]

An awful start for Duke. None of our players have gone more than 3 holes, and the team is +5. Everybody had a bogey or worse on the opening hole (they started on the 10th).

Conditions are apparently much worse today. Most teams are posting higher scores.

[devildeac]

Conditions are apparently much worse today. Most teams are posting higher scores.

Conditions must be horrendous. Best scores are +5 and +6 with no other teams <+10 and many teams +20 or +30 or higher. Duke is +18 and playing the last 4 holes.

[ChemGod]

Sat on a plane with UNC women's golf team this last week...asked casually how their men's ball team did and who won the tournament...

[grossbus]

Nice.

Well played.

[sagegrouse]

Duke (#4 seed) finished the second round in second place at +26 to #1 seeded USC Trojans at +24.

There are 24 teams in the field, and only eight make the match play portion of the tournament. Duke is, so far, 15 shots ahead of #9 Washington (UDub). Two more rounds to go -- today, when Duke tees off at 2 PM ET, and tomorrow, when only the top 15 teams make the cut.

Other top seeds are suffering: #2 South Carolina is at +54 and #3 UCLA is at +61. The other three ACC teams -- ACC champion UVa, Wake and State -- are lagging and will have to make up more than 10 strokes to get to match play.

Duke is led by Leona Maguire in second place in the overall field of 133 at +1. She is followed by Gurbani Singh at T-9, Celine Boutier at T-32 and Sandy Choi at T-49. Leona's twin Lisa is at the back of the field in #128 place with a score of +30. Lisa had a good second nine yesterday, and Duke will need improved scoring from Lisa to make a run at the championship.

[sagegrouse]

Duke is heading into the final qualifying round in first place with a four-shot lead over #1-seeded USC Trojans. Duke had a spectacular +4 for the day and made up six shots on USC. Leona Maguire is in third place in the individual championships, and Gurbani Singh is tied for sixth.

Today's round for the top 15 teams and the individual leaders begins at 10:40. The individual champion will be crowned today. Today's play will also determine the eight teams in the match-play event for the team championship. As I said a couple of days ago, "Holy Q-School! Seven rounds in six days for the two teams that make the finals.

Despite (or because of) all my mental telepathy, Leona's twin Lisa continues to struggle -- starting triple-bogey, double-bogey en route to an 82. C'mon, Lisa, you can do it!

Go Duke!

[chrishoke]

Duke is leading the field after three rounds! How does the match play unfold from here?

[Bluedog]

Duke is leading the field after three rounds! How does the match play unfold from here?

1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, etc. Seems like Duke women's golf always turns it on at tourney time! Too bad it's not just stroke play that determines the champion (not the jinx it, a lot can change in a single round). Right now, the team in 8th place is 7th seeded Washington, Stanford is in 7th place and and UC Davis is in 9th. They're all bunched up, so things will definitely change. The issue with match play for Duke is that I think EVERY golfer counts, so Lisa Maguire's play WILL count, so she needs to seriously turn it on or Duke will be at a disadvantage and putting additional pressure on the other 4 golfers. As part of stroke play, the worst score for the round gets thrown out (which has been Lisa's score for the first three rounds BY FAR). USC, for instance, has shown much more balance and consistency with all 5 of its golfers.

(Note: I could be misunderstanding what happens during matchplay, but you'd think it's 5 vs 5 and whichever team has 3 victories gets to move on, right? So, somebody having a killer round does not more than compensate for another since a victory of 1 stroke counts the same as a victory of 10 strokes. There's probably some strategy there too -- maybe you pit Lisa against the toughest golfer on the other team and almost concede that match to give you a better chance at the other 4? Not sure how that works...).

[MCFinARL]

1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, etc. Seems like Duke women's golf always turns it on at tourney time! Too bad it's not just stroke play that determines the champion (not the jinx it, a lot can change in a single round). Right now, the team in 8th place is 7th seeded Washington, Stanford is in 7th place and and UC Davis is in 9th. They're all bunched up, so things will definitely change. The issue with match play for Duke is that I think EVERY golfer counts, so Lisa Maguire's play WILL count, so she needs to seriously turn it on or Duke will be at a disadvantage and putting additional pressure on the other 4 golfers. As part of stroke play, the worst score for the round gets thrown out (which has been Lisa's score for the first three rounds BY FAR). USC, for instance, has shown much more balance and consistency with all 5 of its golfers.

(Note: I could be misunderstanding what happens during matchplay, but you'd think it's 5 vs 5 and whichever team has 3 victories gets to move on, right? So, somebody having a killer round does not more than compensate for another since a victory of 1 stroke counts the same as a victory of 10 strokes. There's probably some strategy there too -- maybe you pit Lisa against the toughest golfer on the other team and almost concede that match to give you a better chance at the other 4? Not sure how that works...).

Good question. If it's set up like, say, the Ryder Cup, then the coaches would have the option of arranging the players however they want, but if Duke put Lisa in its #1 spot, that move might be countered by the opposing coach rearranging players as well. Regardless of how the matches are set up, having one player whose game is not in good shape would mean the team would, essentially, have to win 3 out of 4 matches, where their opponent, with an almost certain victory in the bag, would need to win 2 out of 4.

The good news is that Lisa Maguire's rounds have been better each day-- 89, 85, 82. So maybe she is getting a handle on her game. Each of the teams clustered around the #7 and #8 positions has had at least one golfer shoot in the low 80's at some point during the tournament, so there might be matches Lisa could win.

[Olympic Fan]

Duke holds a one-shot lead on SCal through four holes in today's final round.

But that's not THAT important, since the title is determined by match play and all that matters is to make the final eight. Duke leads the ninth-place team by 22 shots, a pretty comfortable margin.

What IS important today is the individual standings, since the individual champion will be determined today.

As of this moment, Duke's Leona McGuire is three under after four holes and is -1 for the tournament ... tied for first with Emma Talley of Alabama, who went out early and is through 10 holes.

It looks like McGuire is playing in a group with ASU's Monica Vaughn, who is -1 through four holes today and even for the tournament.

[chrishoke]

It's a good thing match play doesn't start until tomorrow - everyone other than Leona is blowing up today.

[burnspbesq]

Leona is -4 through nine holes (68 would tie for the low round of the tournament) and tied for the individual lead.

Team is struggling a bit (+11 so far) but still in second. Trailing USC by five, and four up on third-place Baylor, which is having a great day so far.

[InSpades]

Duke finished 2nd. Rough day overall (+15) but they came on a bit at the end to take 2nd. When I looked w/ 2 holes left they were tied w/ Baylor for 3rd, they managed to eek ahead of Baylor by 1 stroke and Stanford dropped below both so they grabbed 2nd.

Leona Maguire finished tied for 2nd individually, 1 shot back.

Good luck in the match play ladies!

[Indoor66]

The west coast of Florida has had terrible weather all week. Storms, winds, rain and general unpleasantness. I understand the scoring issues.

[MCFinARL]

Duke finished 2nd. Rough day overall (+15) but they came on a bit at the end to take 2nd. When I looked w/ 2 holes left they were tied w/ Baylor for 3rd, they managed to eek ahead of Baylor by 1 stroke and Stanford dropped below both so they grabbed 2nd.

Leona Maguire finished tied for 2nd individually, 1 shot back.

Good luck in the match play ladies!

Yes, Stanford was finishing on the front nine, and three of their five players bogeyed the very difficult last hole there, to go with 2 pars--in the end, birdying that hole is what won Emma Talley the individual championship. At the same time, Duke, finishing on 18, had two birdies, two pars and a bogey. So the last hole made a big difference.

Very glad that Duke got out of the fourth position, so if they have to face USC it will be because they have gotten to the finals.

[awhom111]

Yes, Stanford was finishing on the front nine, and three of their five players bogeyed the very difficult last hole there, to go with 2 pars--in the end, birdying that hole is what won Emma Talley the individual championship. At the same time, Duke, finishing on 18, had two birdies, two pars and a bogey. So the last hole made a big difference.

Very glad that Duke got out of the fourth position, so if they have to face USC it will be because they have gotten to the finals.

Interesting looking at the match play bracket from pre-tournament rankings: (Golfstat before this tournament) [Golfweek before regionals]

USC (1) [3] vs Washington (7) [1]
Arizona (5) [6] vs Stanford (13) [16]
Baylor (18) [17] vs Tennessee (12) [11]
Texas Tech (27) [34] vs Duke (4) [5]