Blue Devils Open ACCs in Second Overall; Three Blue Devils in Top-10

Thursday, April 13

Greensboro, N.C. (Sedgefield Country Club)

Duke University

ACC Championship

Photo by: Kelsey Groff / Duke Athletics

Blue Devils Open ACCs in Second Overall; Three Blue Devils in Top-10

4/13/2023 9:23:00 PM | Women's Golf

Scoring

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Duke women's golf team continued their solid play as the Blue Devils opened the ACC Championship on Thursday with back-to-back rounds of 5-under-par, 283, and sits in second place with a season-best 10-under, 566, at the 6,092-yard, par-72 Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.

Duke features three Blue Devils in the top-10 of the individual leaderboard with Phoebe Brinker (-4, T3), Andie Smith (-3, T5) and Megan Furtney (-2, T9) shooting a combined 9-under-par.

Wake Forest holds the team lead with a 15-under, 561, while Duke (566), Clemson (568), Virginia (575), Florida State (586) and Virginia Tech round out the top six. Following Friday's third round, the top-4 teams will advance to match play, which will start on Saturday morning.

How It Happened – Round One
•   The Blue Devils got off to a solid start on Thursday morning led by freshman Andie Smith's three straight birdies. She drained a 25-footer on hole No. 1, stuck it to two feet on No. 2 and then hit her approach on No. 3 to six inches for birdie. Smith made the turn at 1-under, 34, and then played her final nine holes at bogey-free, 3-under-par. She sank a 20-foot birdie on No. 10 and then drained a 5-foot birdie on No. 14 and 10-footer for birdie on No. 16. Smith finished with a career-best, 4-under-par, 68, and was tied for second overall through 18 holes.
•   Coming off winning the ACC Individual Championship a year ago, junior Phoebe Brinker turned in a 1-under, 71, in round one. She was 1-over through seven holes to start her day, before hitting her 54-degree wedge from 86 yards and the ball taking one hop and going in the hole for eagle. Brinker made the turn at even-par, 35, and caught fire on the back birding three out of the first six holes to move to 2-under, before finishing with a 71.
•   Erica Shepherd got into red numbers on both the front and back nine, before finishing with an even-par, 72. Classmate Megan Furtney had a tough start, before closing strong with three birdies over her final five holes to also finish at even-par. Of her three birdies to finish, all were putts within eight feet.
•   Junior Anne Chen 2-putted for birdie on No. 15 and sank a 5-footer for birdie on No. 17 to close strong in round one. She finished with a 3-over, 75.
•   Duke led the field with a 5-under, 283, in round one with Clemson (285) and Wake Forest (285) tied for second.
•   In round one, Duke registered 11 birdies over its final five holes. The Blue Devils featured four of the eight birdies on hole No. 14 in round one. Hole No. 14 was rated as the fifth-hardest hole in the first round.

How It Happened – Round Two
•   Duke opened the second round on hole No. 10.
•   Phoebe Brinker led the Blue Devils with a 3-under, 69, in round two as she moved into a tie for third overall. Heading to the par-5 No. 15 at even-par, Brinker notched her second eagle of the day as she hit her 4-iron from 220 yards to eight feet and sank the eagle putt. She then rolled in a 30-footer for birdie on No. 2 and after a bogey on No. 4 got back to 3-under with a 15-foot birdie on No. 6. The 69 is her second-best round in ACC Championship action.
•   Megan Furtney opened her second round with a birdie on No. 10 and then got another one on No. 15 to get to 2-under early. After a double-bogey on No. 16, Furtney strung together four straight birdies to move to 4-under. She had her putter working during the stretch as she sank a 12-footer on No. 17, 8-footer on No. 18, 5-foot birdie on No. 1 and 20-footer on No. 2. Furtney closed with a couple of bogeys to finish with a 2-under, 70. Her 36-hole score of 142 is the best since her sophomore season.
•   In the second round, Andie Smith just couldn't get the birdie putts to drop as she finished with 15 pars, two bogeys and one birdie for a 1-over, 73. She had six straight pars to open the day and then had back-to-back bogeys on No. 16 and No. 17. Smith drained a 10-footer for birdie on No. 18, before carding nine straight pars to close her round.
•   Junior Anne Chen also couldn't get the putts to drop on Thursday, but battled to a 1-under, 71, in round two. She moved up the leaderboard into 18th with a 146. Chen was bogey-free through her first 11 holes, while also registering a birdie on No. 15. Her only bogey of the afternoon came on No. 3, but she closed with a 6-footer for birdie on No. 9 to finish with a 71.
•   In a tough second round, senior Erica Shepherd signed for a season-worst, 81, on Thursday, which included three birdies. She entered the week coming off back-to-back top-8 performances in the ACC Championship.

Notes
•   Only 12 golfers shot under par in the first 36 holes with three of them being Blue Devils.
•   Megan Furtney missed only six greens over her first 36 holes and totaled 10 birdies, which ranked tied for third among the field.
•   Phoebe Brinker totaled two eagles on the day and now features eight career eagles, which ranks tied for second on Duke's all-time charts.
•   With her 4-under, 68, in round one, freshman Andie Smith posted a career-low 18-hole score. She matched the Duke record for lowest round one score in ACC Championship history on a par-72 course. •   Smith hit 17 greens, including hitting the final 12 of the day in the first round.
•   Anne Chen missed only six greens out of her two rounds on Thursday.
•   Duke shot 15-under on the par-5 holes, which ranked fourth among the field. The Blue Devils' 35 birdies ranked second behind Wake Forest (36).
•   The Blue Devils are looking to advance to match play for the third straight year since the championship moved to match play to decide the champion.
•   Duke's rounds of 283 are tied for the fifth-lowest for the Blue Devils in the ACC Championship on a par-72 course.
•   Amanda Sambach of Virginia (-10, 134) and Rachel Kuehn of Wake Forest (-8, 136) are atop the individual leaderboard.

Quotes
"I'm happy with the whole team top to bottom. I feel bad for Erica [Shepherd] because she feels bad, but I'm happy that the others stepped up when she slipped a little. Erica has been there for us so much for so long." -- Duke head coach Dan Brooks

"Yeah, the golf that shot 10-under doesn't surprise me. It's been more of a surprise that it hasn't come together earlier. This is a very talented team. I've had the good fortune of seeing talented teams and this team fits right in with those earlier great teams. So, we're doing what we're very capable of doing right now." -- Duke head coach Dan Brooks

"It was a really solid day overall and then I had a couple of really good stretches. I actually had two eagles today. So, I think that it was really solid overall and then I was really patient and kind of like, waited for the putts to drop and to actually hit it from the fairway." -- Duke junior Phoebe Brinker

"I'm really excited about it. Like Coach [Dan Brooks] just said in our meeting, we have a lot of talent, but it hasn't lined up and so for it to line up for 36-hole day was really cool. And I'm really excited for the rest of the tournament with the team." -- Duke junior Phoebe Brinker

What is Next
Duke is scheduled to tee off on Friday in the third and final stroke play round beginning at 9:50 a.m., off hole No. 1 along with Clemson and Wake Forest.

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