Women's Golf Claims 12th Straight ACC Championship

Sunday, April 15

Charlotte, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day Three

Women's Golf Claims 12th Straight ACC Championship

4/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf

Final Results Duke Overall Stats

By: Duke Sports Information

CHARLOTTE, N.C. ? For the 12th straight year and the 15th time in school history, the Duke Women's Golf team has claimed the ACC Championship as the Blue Devils carded a 54-hole total of 873 to win by 35 strokes at the Par 72, 6,293-Yard Carmel Country Club in Charlotte, N.C. Blue Devil sophomore Amanda Blumenherst became Duke's third back-to-back individual champion as she carded a final round 74 and a three-day total of 212 to win the title.

The golfers had to deal with damp conditions in the morning as the Blue Devils began teeing off at 10:40 a.m. While on holes six through nine, a weather delay occurred for an hour beginning at 12:50 p.m. Once play resumed the temperatures dropped about 20 degrees and the wind picked up to gust up to 40 miles per hour. To show how much harder the back nine was due to the inclement weather, Duke had eight birdies on the front nine and one birdie on the back nine

After trailing the individual action for first 36 holes, Blumenherst fired a final round 74 and won by three strokes over Florida State's Caroline Westrup (215). Westrup entered the final round with a two stroke lead but had a double-bogey on the first hole to move the two golfers even with 17 holes remaining. A 25-foot chip-in birdie on the second hole for Westrup and a par by Blumenherst gave the Seminole a one stroke advantage, but Blumenherst made a short birdie putt on the third hole to put the two even once again.

Westrup played a solid round up until the 12th hole as she was one-over-par during that span. But as the weather got very tough to deal with, Blumenherst held on strong and Westrup could not stay with the reigning National Player of the Year. A product of Scottsdale, Ariz., Blumenherst made the turn at even par and played the back nine at two-over-par, but Westrup was six-over-par during the final seven holes to give the Duke star and current top-ranked golfer in the nation her fourth victory of the season.

Duke notched the team title with rounds of 287, 284 and 302 . Finishing second was Wake Forest (908) followed by Florida State (913), North Carolina (917), Virginia (920), Maryland (931), N.C. State (947), Miami (964) and Boston College (1001). The 35-stroke victory by the Blue Devils is the second-largest in ACC history as Duke won by 47-strokes in the 2005 championship, which was also held at the Carmel Country Club in Charlotte, N.C.

With the victory, Duke earns one point towards the Carlyle Cup, which is a year-long competition between North Carolina and Duke. Currently, the standings are tied at 10.5-10.5 as this is the closest race in the history of the Carlyle Cup.

The Blue Devils featured three golfers in the top six of the individual play and all five golfers finished in the top 13. Blumenherst finished first followed by sophomore Jennie Lee in third and senior Anna Grzebien was sixth.

Lee had a one-under-par round going through 12 holes but the weather got the best of her over the final six holes as she was four-over-par during that span as she finished with a 75. Her three day total of 217 placed her third, which ties her for her best finish of the season. A product of Henderson, Nev., Lee was one of the most solid golfers all weekend as she totaled rounds of 71, 71 and 75.

After having two very solid rounds to start the ACC Championship, Grzebien struggled on the afternoon with the tough weather. She finished with a final round 79, but was only two-over-par over the first 12 holes. A native of Narragansett, R.I., Grzebien played the final six holes at five-over-par. Overall, she finished sixth with a three-day total of 222. In her four appearances in the ACC Championship, Grzebien finished in the top 15 during each of those years.

Making the best start of the day for the Blue Devils was junior Jennifer Pandolfi as she birdied her first two holes with a 20-foot and 30-foot putts. A product of Navarre, Fla., Pandolfi then made pars on the next four holes before birding holes seven and eight. After completing eight holes she was four-under-par, but the weather delay occurred and cut off her momentum. When she came back out on the course she played the final 10 holes at six-over-par to finish with a 74. Overall, Pandolfi finished 13th with a 229 and her round of 74 on Sunday was the second-best of the day.

Freshman Alison Whitaker finished off her weekend with an 80 on Sunday and closed at tied for 11th with a 228. She posted rounds of 74, 74 and 80 over the three days. Whitaker collected seven birdies over the first two days but could not get going on Sunday as she finished with zero birdies.

Overall, Blumenherst now owns seven career victories, which ranks tied for second on Duke's all-time wins list along with Liz Janangelo and Jenny Chuasiriporn. The school record is 12 by Mary Anne Widman. Blumenherst collected a seven-under-par ledger on par four holes over the three days, which led the tournament, while Lee's 41 pars also led the ACC.

Duke has won the ACC Championship in 1984, ?85, ?93, ?96, ?97, ?98, ?99, 2000, ?01, ?02, ?03, ?04, ?05, ?06 and ?07. Ten different Blue Devils have claimed individual honors at the ACC Championship? Mary Anne Widman (1984), Evelyn Orley (1985), Kathi Poppmeier (1994), Jenny Chuasiriporn (1996 & 1997), Beth Bauer (1999), Maria Garcia-Estrada (2000), Nirapathpongporn (2001), Candy Hannemann (2002), Brittany Lang (2004 & 2005) and Amanda Blumenherst (2006 & 2007).

Duke will next await the NCAA Regional selection which will take place on April 30 at 4:00 p.m. The regionals will be from May 10-12 at either LSU, Michgan or Brigham Young.

Duke Head Coach Dan Brooks
“We are excited to win and I am excited to the fact that we went under par the first two days. Today was just good golf, but the weather just didn't give up as many birdies. I am excited that we played really well the first two days and got the margin.”

On Amanda Blumenherst's win
“That [her playing well when the weather was bad] was the impressive part of her golf today. She got back to one-over-par and then during the very worst weather of the whole weekend she was able to hold it at one-over. She hit into some 35-40 mile an hour winds. It was really nasty coming in as we played in winds that could almost knock you over.”

On Jennifer Pandolfi's play:
“I was really happy for Jennifer. It was unfortunate that she got the 80 round but for her to bounce back like that. For her to shoot two-over today in those kind of conditions was great.”

Sophomore Amanda Blumenherst
“It felt great [to get the win]. I went into today being two shots down. I just went in with the mindset of playing my game and not Caroline's [Westrup]-- playing one shot and one hole at a time. Especially, when the winds started kicking up I knew if I played my game I would could out on top.”

On playing in bad weather:
“I was playing very conservative. I was one down going into No. 15. I had never played in wind like this before as it was so strong. Those closing holes are water holes and tricky greens. I knew if I played solid golf and just hit the ball into the middle of the green I was going to be fine.”

On team winning:
“It is great. Duke women's golf definitely has a tradition of winning and just playing good golf, especially during the ACC. To be able to continue that is something to be proud of.”

Sophomore Jennie Lee

On team winning:
“We definitely played well the first couple of days. It was a rough day out there today with the wind and rain, especially the last seven or eight holes. I think we really hung in there tight. It was just really easy to lose your focus, but I think all of us did really well to stay focused on our game and take it shot by shot. I think we all did a good job this week.”

- d - u - k - e -

ACC Championship Results

1 Duke +9 F 287 284 302 873
1 Amanda Blumenherst -4 F 70 68 74 212
3 Jennie Lee +1 F 71 71 75 217
6 Anna Grzebien +6 F 72 71 79 222
T11 Alison Whitaker +12 F 74 74 80 228
13 Jennifer Pandolfi +13 F 75 80 74 229

2 Wake Forest +44 F 297 296 315 908
T8 Mandy Goins +10 F 78 72 76 226
T8 Laura Crawford +10 F 73 73 80 226
T11 Maggie Simons +12 F 72 76 80 228
14 Jean Chua +14 F 76 75 79 230
T24 Nannette Hill +21 F 76 76 85 237

3 Florida State Univ. +49 F 290 302 321 913
2 Caroline Westrup -1 F 66 70 79 215
T15 Lauren Cousart +15 F 79 76 76 231
T18 Whitney Wright +17 F 74 77 82 233
T27 Whitney Brummett +22 F 75 79 84 238
T30 Kayla Shaul +24 F 75 79 86 240

4 North Carolina +53 F 300 306 311 917
7 Katie Miller +7 F 72 78 73 223
T15 Sydney Crane +15 F 75 77 79 231
T18 Ann Laney +17 F 78 74 81 233
T22 Lauren Hunt +20 F 75 77 84 236
T35 Kate Thomas +28 F 82 84 78 244

5 Virginia +56 F 297 303 320 920
4 Leah Wigger +3 F 76 70 73 219
5 Rachel Smith +4 F 68 75 77 220
T30 Whitney Neuhauser +24 F 77 78 85 240
32 Kristen Simpson +25 F 76 80 85 241
- Jennie Arseneault +10 F 82 W W W

6 Maryland, U. of +67 F 312 308 311 931
T8 Kelly Calkin +10 F 77 72 77 226
T18 Katie Trotter +17 F 83 77 73 233
T27 Jessica Reno +22 F 79 80 79 238
29 Katie Stepanek +23 F 74 81 84 239
34 Kelly MacWhinnie +27 F 82 79 82 243

7 North Carolina St. +83 F 306 313 328 947
T15 Emily Street +15 F 74 79 78 231
T24 Kathleen Strandberg +21 F 79 76 82 237
T24 Lauren Doughtie +21 F 76 78 83 237
33 Stephanie Derrey +26 F 77 80 85 242
41 Cindel Gwyn +44 F 83 83 94 260

8 Miami, U. of +100 F 325 315 324 964
T18 Jessica Steward +17 F 83 77 73 233
T22 Tiffany Prats +20 F 80 78 78 236
T35 Hagen Weintraub +28 F 81 77 86 244
40 Anabelle Paulino +35 F 81 83 87 251
43 Josie Shinn +57 F 91 93 89 273

9 Boston College +137 F 344 330 327 1001
37 Meghan Martinek +29 F 83 76 86 245
T38 Katie Napleton +32 F 85 84 79 248
T38 Lara Smilnak +32 F 84 81 83 248
42 Natalie Draganza +47 F 93 91 79 263
44 Sara Gogolak +61 F 92 89 96 277