DURHAM, N.C. – After opening the spring season with an impressive victory at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, the third-ranked Duke women's golf team will return to action March 6-8 at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, which will be contested at the 6,266 yard, Par 71 Pete Dye Course at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, S.C.
The field includes Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Duke, Florida State, Furman, Georgia, LSU, North Carolina, Northwestern, South Carolina, Texas, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest. Seeing action will be 10 top-20 ranked teams, including four in the top 10 – Texas (1), Duke (3), Wake Forest (7) and South Carolina (9).
Duke will field a lineup with senior
Ana Belac, junior
Jaravee Boonchant, junior
Miranda Wang, sophomore
Gina Kim and freshman
Erica Shepherd. Freshman
Megan Furtney will also compete as an individual.
All teams will play 18 holes each day for a total of 54 holes over three days.
In the latest Golfweek Individual rankings, Duke features three golfers in the top 50 including Belac (4), Boonchant (15) and Kim (50).
Duke carded rounds of 291, 273 and 283 for a one-under-par, 847, and finished ahead of nine top 10 teams to claim the victory at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge to open the spring. Wang turned in a career-best week with rounds of 74, 66 and 68 on her way to placing tied for second with a five-under, 208. Belac placed tied for fifth with rounds of 74, 66 and 70 for a three-under-par, 210. With the victory, Blue Devil head coach
Dan Brooks has now led Duke to at least one victory in 35 of the 36 years in Durham and an NCAA-best 137 tournament wins.
The Blue Devils will play in the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate for the seventh time in school history and have twice, in 2014 and 2015, come away with team titles. Two Blue Devils have registered individual wins as Leona Maguire won in 2015 and Yu Liu captured the trophy in 2014.
Duke will open action Friday, March 6 beginning at 8:30 a.m., off hole No. 1. Furtney will tee off starting at 10:10 a.m., off No. 10.
#GoDuke