After the 2020 season was canceled a year ago, it is easy today to forget who the champions of college golf are in 2019.
Duke women are here to remind you. While only one player from the title team, junior Gina Kim, was on the roster this week, the new crop of talent started where the champions left off.
Blue Devils, starting with two freshmen and two sophomores alongside Kim, swept the Gamecock Intercollegiate at the Columbia Country Club in Blythewood, South Carolina, on Wednesday, hitting a field full of the best teams in the country. In his second spring event, Duke won the team’s trophy equally, three strokes ahead of runner-up Wake Forest – the only team below par in the final round – and six ahead of host South Carolina.
Sophomore Erica Shepherd, winner of the Golfweek Hoosier Amateur last fall, led the individual standings with 7 under, thanks to consistent rounds of 69-70-70. South Carolina’s Lois Kaye Go finished second with 4 under, with Phoebe Brinker from Duke, Ingrid Lindblad from LSU and T-3 from Benedetta Moresco from Alabama with 2 under.
Golfweek / Sagarin Classifications: Female team | Women’s Individual
College golf blog: The road to Grayhawk
The bad weather forecast forced the teams to start the third round on Tuesday afternoon to ensure that all 54 holes were played. All teams completed at least eight holes in the final round before the game was announced on Tuesday night and restarted on Wednesday morning.
The Blue Devils finished third last week in their first spring event at the Palmetto Intercollegiate and will play in Augusta, Georgia, at the Forest Hills Golf Club for the Valspar Augusta Invitational, March 13-14.