KirkwoodGolf: Duke Cards Even-Par Round; Moves into Fourth at NCAA Regional

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Duke Cards Even-Par Round; Moves into Fourth at NCAA Regional

From Duke coach, Jack Winters

Live Scoring
May 9, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – With 18 holes remaining at the NCAA Albuquerque Regional, the third-seeded Duke University women's golf team sits in fourth place following an even-par ledger of 288 Tuesday at the 6,637-yard, par 72 Championship Course at the University of New Mexico.

After starting the day tied for sixth, the Blue Devils moved up two slots to fourth and improving their second round by nine strokes Tuesday. Duke carded a 297 in round one followed by an even-par, 288, in round two. The Blue Devils need to finish in the top six of the team standings to advance to the NCAA Championship, which will take place May 19-24 at Rich Harvest Farm in Sugar Grove, Illinois.

Stanford moved into the team lead with a five-under-par, 283, in the second round and holds a four-stroke lead over Pepperdine (577). Southern California (580), Duke (585), California (586), Washington (587), Oklahoma State (590), Miami (591), Illinois (593), Campbell (595) and NC State (595) rounded out the top 10 teams.

The Blue Devils featured three golfers turning in one-under-par rounds of, 71, Tuesday to help register the even-par output. Freshman Ana Belac, senior Sandy Choi and junior Leona Maguire all enter the final round in the top 20 of the individual leaderboard. Stanford's Albane Valenzuela currently holds the individual lead with a four-under-par 140, while Martina Edberg of CSU Fullerton is second at three-under-par 141.

Maguire, a product of Cavan, Ireland, turned in a team-high five birdies in the second round on her way to carding her 18th round of even or under par on the season. She opened with a three-foot birdie on No. 1, but suffered just her fourth double-bogey or worse of the season on No. 2.

Maguire added a birdie on No. 6, but had her approach hit on the green on No. 7 and run off and went on to make bogey. She responded with her third birdie of the front nine on the 178-yard, par three eighth hole as she hit her eight-iron from 141 yards to one.

After making the turn at even-par, 36, Maguire registered an eight-foot birdie on No. 12 to move back into the red numbers. She added a bogey on the par five 14th, but stuck her approach to two feet on No. 15 for birdie. Maguire finished the afternoon with three pars on her way to a 71. She hit 12 fairways, 14 greens and had 29 putts. Maguire had seven fewer putts from the day before.

Leona Maguire's twin sister third-year student Lisa made up two strokes from the first round as she carded a five-over-par 77 in the second round even though she was dealing with some sickness that started the night before. Maguire, who hails from Cavan, Ireland, played her final eight holes at even par that included holing a 10-foot birdie on No. 13 and an eight-foot birdie on No. 14. She hit nine fairways, 10 greens and had 33 putts .

A day after shooting 10-over-par on the back nine, the Blue Devils turned in an one-under-par score Tuesday to help move up the scoreboard.

Duke will tee off Wednesday in the third and final round beginning at 10:24 a.m. (ET), along with California and Washington. The Blue Devils will be looking to advance to the NCAA Championship for the 22nd time out of the last 24 appearances.

Duke Results
T14 T10 Ana Belac Duke 73 71 144 E
T30 T20 Sandy Choi Duke 75 71 146 +2
T30 T20 Leona Maguire Duke 75 71 146 +2
T24 T38 Virginia Elena Carta Duke 74 75 149 +5
T73 T77 Lisa Maguire Duke 79 77 156 +12

Team Scores
2 1 Stanford 290 283 573 -3
1 2 Pepperdine 287 290 577 +1
T3 3 Southern California 295 285 580 +4
T6 4 Duke 297 288 585 +9
T3 5 California 295 291 586 +10
T3 6 Washington 295 292 587 +11
11 7 Oklahoma State 304 286 590 +14
10 8 Miami 303 288 591 +15
13 9 Illinois 306 287 593 +17
T6 T10 Campbell 297 298 595 +19
8 T10 North Carolina State 301 294 595 +19
9 12 SMU 302 301 603 +27
14 13 New Mexico State 307 297 604 +28
12 14 Denver 305 300 605 +29
16 15 Sacramento State 310 298 608 +3
15 16 Cal Poly 308 312 620 +44
17 17 Houston Baptist 314 310 624 +48
18 18 Texas Southern Univ. 365 350 715 +139

Leading Scores
3 1 Albane Valenzuela Stanford 71 69 140 -4
T14 T2 Martina Edberg * CSU Fullerton 73 68 141 -3
T4 T2 Julianne Alvarez Washington 72 69 141 -3
1 T4 Laura Kowohl North Carolina State 69 73 142 -2
T14 T4 Bianca Pagdanganan * Gonzaga 73 69 142 -2
2 T4 Tatiana Wijaya Pepperdine 70 72 142 -2
T4 T7 Marthe Wold California 72 71 143 -1
T4 T7 Shannon Aubert Stanford 72 71 143 -1
T4 T7 Victoria Morgan Southern California 72 71 143 -1

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