Blue Devils Jump Into First At NCAA Women's Golf Championship

Wednesday, May 23

Daytona Beach, Fla.

All Day

Duke University

Day Two

Blue Devils Jump Into First At NCAA Women's Golf Championship

5/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf

By: Duke Sports Information

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.-- On Wednesday at the 2007 NCAA Women's Golf Championship, the second-ranked Duke Women's Golf Team wasted no time taking over command of the leaderboard as the Blue Devils carded seven birdies over the first five holes and took the lead just an hour and 15 minutes into the morning round. After the day was complete, Duke fired a one-under-par, 287, and held a seven-shot lead with 36 holes remaining at the 6,351-Yard, Par 72 LPGA International Legends Course in Daytona Beach, Fla.

The Blue Devils are the reigning back-to-back NCAA Champions and Duke has won four NCAA titles over the last eight years. Duke, who began the day on hole 10 at 8:00 a.m., now owns a two-day total of 587 and leads by seven strokes over UCLA (594) with Purdue (597), Stanford (599), Southern California (601), Georgia (602), Louisville (603), Pepperdine (605), Arizona State (605), TCU (606) and Wake Forest (606) rounding out the top 10. Duke's second round lead in the NCAA Championship marks the first time the Blue Devils have led after 36-holes of the NCAA Championship since 2001 when they were tied with Oklahoma State. The Blue Devils went on to finish second to Georgia.

“Well you just get a little bit smarter,” Duke Head Coach Dan Brooks commented about the high winds. “With the wind, one thing you have to do out here is not over estimate the gusts. You have to know what the prevailing wind is and have faith that that is going to be the dominate effect on the ball and not get too hung up on the little gusts we are feeling. That's a tough thing to do and then you have to be willing to be conservative and just be happy if you hit it somewhere in the fat part of the green because there is some swirliness going on out here. Both of those things are really hard to do. It takes patience and understanding of the game.”

Day one for the Blue Devils was all about big numbers as Duke totaled five double-bogeys and two triple-bogeys but on day two the Blue Devils had no double or triple bogies.

“I was very impressed by their patience today,” said Brooks. “We had some hiccups yesterday. We got bit by some big numbers and maybe we were a little more affected by those numbers then we needed to be. Today, it seemed like we had less of those from what I can tell and I think that they were mentally a little bit stronger today and probably less affected by the mishaps.”

After carding her worst round of the season with an 80 on Tuesday, senior Anna Grzebien was determined to have a better morning on Wednesday. A product of Narragansett, R.I., Grzebien went off first for the Blue Devils on the same nine she was five-over-par on the day before. She started with a par on No. 10 and a bogey on No. 11, but she settled down to play the next six holes at four-under-par with birdies on No. 12, 14, 16 and 17. A bogey on the very tough 18th hole led her to a two-under-par, 34, over her first nine holes.

“Yesterday fired me up,” said Grzebien. “This is the tournament where you need to come and play because everyone is prepared to win it. I got off on a good start [today], nothing special, just making pars. I gave myself a bunch of birdie opportunities inside of 12 feet. I made a few, but I left a lot out there. It just felt good to be steady. I had a big number on a hole or two yesterday, so I just told myself to buckle down.”

The 2005 NCAA Individual Champion and two-time All-America, Grzebien carded seven pars, a bogey on No. 5 and a birdie on No. 6 during the final stretch to finish with a team-best two-under-par, 70. With a two-day total of 150 she is tied for 23rd. For the day, she hit 15 greens including eight inside 12-15 feet, hit 12 of 14 fairways and had 31 putts. Grzebien posted a two-under-par ledger on holes 10-18 on Wednesday, after going five-over-par to close the round on day one.

“No one really played great yesterday for us, except Amanda had a solid round, very solid,” said Grzebien. “We just met up after we had finished and we looked at is as we didn't play our game and we were only a few off the lead. Coach is very good at not pressing too early. He told us to keep doing what we were doing, we all lost shots out there yesterday. It wasn't any big motivational thing. It was just everyone kind of knew what they had to do.”

On pace to challenge for the NCAA Individual Championship and her eighth career victory is sophomore Amanda Blumenherst, who owns a one-under-par, 143, and is two shots off the lead behind Christel Boeljon (141) of Purdue, while Stacy Lewis of Arkansas (142) is second. Blumenherst is tied for third along with Tiffany Joh (UCLA) and Catherine Matranga (TCU). Blumenherst posted a one-over-par, 73, on Wednesday with two birdies, including one on her final hole to move her into a tie for the individual lead.

“I played well,” said Blumenherst. “It definitely didn't go as well as yesterday, but it could have. It wasn't poor hitting or bad putting, things just did not fall into place. The wind definitely affected my play. I hit three balls over the green and left two short. I wasn't hitting the greens like I usually do. Usually I only miss about one green a round. I had to adjust a little that way.”

A native of Scottsdale, Ariz., Blumenherst opened with a par on her first hole and then registered a birdie on hole 11 to move to one-under-par. She went on to par the next six holes before suffering her first bogey of the day on No. 18 to make the turn at even par, 36. Blumenherst had her second straight bogey to open the next nine and had another bogey on the 364-yard, par four sixth hole. She closed with three straight pars and a birdie on No. 9. For the round, Blumenherst hit 13 greens, had 32 putts and hit 13 fairways.

“I feel like I'm playing very well,” said Blumenherst. “I'm striking it well and also making the putts I need to. A few didn't fall today but it really wasn't due to a poor putting stroke. It was just that I misread it or hit it too hard. I am feeling very confident about the next two days.”

Continuing to play solid golf in NCAA Championship action is sophomore Jennie Lee as she collected an even-par, 72, on Wednesday. Lee, who is from Henderson, Nev., owns a two-day total of 148 and is tied for 10th in the individual play. The 2006 NCAA runner-up, Lee carded one birdie and one bogey on each nine to go along with seven pars. She notched birdies on the par three third hole and par four 13th.

“I hit the ball well today,” said Lee. “I hit a lot of greens and when I didn't I was able to get up and down. I did a good job of not making bogies today. Mostly though I tried to focus on my shot and not get carried away.”

Using her momentum of a two-under-par score over her final five holes from Tuesday, freshman Alison Whitaker began her morning with two birdies over her first four holes and was two-under-par heading into the 18th hole. A product of Melbourne, Australia, Whitaker suffered a bogey to make the turn with a 35. She had another birdie on the third hole but totaled bogies on No. 5 and No. 7 to close with an even par, 72. All three of Whitaker's birdies on the day came off of 25-foot or longer putts as she finished with only 28 putts.

“Today I holed some big putts, which was the difference in my score,” said Whitaker. “I made three over 25 feet that was a big help. I was solid all day though.”

Whitaker hit only 11 greens on day two and is tied for 14th with a 149 in the individual action.

Junior Jennifer Pandolfi had problems closing out her first round with a bogey, double-bogey finish on Tuesday. She opened her second round with a bogey on the first hole as she hit her approach shot into the bunker and couldn't get it up and down. The native of Navarre, Fla., responded with her first of three birdies on the day on the second hole to get back to even par on Wednesday. Then, she collected seven consecutive pars to make the turn at even par, 36.

“I hit my irons much better and hit it well off the tee today,” said Pandolfi. “The way I finished today is very encouraging for tomorrow.”

Pandolfi opened her final nine with bogies on holes one, three and six, but regrouped to close with a birdie on the 186-yard, par three seventh, a par on No. 8 and a birdie on No. 9 to notch a one-over-par, 73. She hit 13 greens, hit 10 fairways and had 32 putts on the day. Pandolfi is tied for 23rd with a 150 after 36 holes.

“That's gotta help a lot,” commented Brooks on Amanda Blumenherst's play. “That's just another case where they were close yesterday and they fell in today. I think for Amanda they didn't fall in today, but maybe they will tomorrow. Take the approach where you let the score unfold the way it is gonna unfold and you don't sweat when those birdies come, but they will come. Have faith that they will come.”

Duke will tee off on Wednesday along with UCLA and Purdue beginning at 1:20 p.m., on hole number one

Notes:

* The weather for Wednesday was partly cloudy, warm and dealt with wins gusting from 10-25 mph. On the final nine holes, rain came down for a short time but didn't accumulate to anything.

* As a team, Duke notched 15 birdies on Wednesday after firing 11 birdies on day one.

* The average score for round two was 77.51.

* Only 10 birdies have been made on hole No. 7 this week so far and Jennifer Pandolfi is one of them as she made a birdie today on it. On Wednesday, Duke played the seventh hole at even par.

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