Duke and Shepherd end Baylor’s winning streak in South Carolina

Duke and Shepherd end Baylor’s winning streak in South Carolina

The streak is over.

Baylor’s reign as No. 1 in the Golfstat collegiate ranking may not be over yet, but his streak of five tournament wins is certainly after an eleventh place on the Gamecock Intercollegiate.

Missing a trophy ceremony for the first time since March 2020, the Lady Bears streak gave way to defending national champion (2019) Duke and second Blue Devil, Erica Shepherd.

Shepherd’s pair of under-70s, along with an opening 69, helped Duke to a three-shot win over Wake Forest, giving himself his own three-shot advantage over South Carolina’s Lois Kaye Go. it was easy, as the Columbia Country Club was drenched in rain earlier in the week, making the game longer than the 6,297 yards announced on the scoreboard. With bad weather looming in the area, tournament officials decided to play as many holes as possible on Tuesday, joining the second and third rounds. With the final round ending on Tuesday night in the midst of a hailstorm, Duke and Shepherd had to return on Wednesday to finalize their respective victories.

Duke as a team was with the par 3-over in the final round, but was able to put the pieces together enough to avoid a Wake Forest race. Host South Carolina fumbled with a possible run in the lead with a final round of 10 over for a total of 870 in the tournament, six shots out of the Blue Devils’ pace.

Duke entered the week as No. 23 on the Golfstat D-1 high school ranking. With No. 1 Baylor, No. 2 from South Carolina, No. 6 Wake Forest, and a handful of other ranked teams losing to the Blue Devils, Duke will definitely see an increase in his ranking.

As for Shepherd, the victory marks the first of his career at Duke and his second tournament win since September. The next for her and her team is the Valspar Augusta Invitational, held at the Forest Hills Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia (March 13-14). Shepherd will be back in Augusta the following week to participate in the second match of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship.