Leona Maguire Finishes Runner-Up at NCAA Championship
SUGAR GROVE, Illinois – For the second time in her short collegiate career, Duke University third-year student Leona Maguire has finished runner-up and one shot off the lead at the NCAA Championship as she carded a two-over-par total of 218 at the 6,343-yard, par 72 Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois
Maguire improved her scores each round during the championship. After opening with a 77 Friday, she closed with a one-under 71, and a two-under 70. With the top five finish, Maguire joined only Celine Boutier and Amanda Blumenherst as Duke golfers to finish in the top five of multiple NCAA Championships. Duke has featured a golfer in the top two of the individual leaderboard in each of the last three NCAA Championships – Maguire (T2nd in 2017, 2015), Virginia Elena Carta (1st in 2016).
Arizona State's Monica Vaughn registered back-to-back birdies late in her round on Nos. 6 and No. 7 to take a one stroke lead on the individual leaderboard and ended up holding on with a one-over-par 217 for the individual title. Vaughn was one stroke better than Maguire (218) and Wake Forest's Jennifer Kupcho (218).
"She knew exactly where she stood – she was four back and knew in order to win this she needed to play well," commented Duke head coach Dan Brooks on Maguire. "She shot two under today. The wind wasn't quite as strong today, but it was still a very difficult. Two under was exceptional golf."
In Monday's final round, Maguire opened the day with a great sand save on the par four 10th hole. She then hit her pitching wedge from 103 yards away on the 341-yard, par four 12th to within three feet and drained the birdie to get to one-under. After three straight pars, she would bogey back-to-back holes on 16 and 17. Maguire responded by hitting her approach shot on the par five 18th onto the green for an eagle putt. She would end up tapping in a short birdie to get back to even as she made the turn.
"I played really well all day," said Maguire. "I did exactly what I wanted to do – started with a nice par save on 10, hit some good birdies and just played really steady, solid golf."
Maguire, a native of Cavan, Ireland, parred Nos 1 and 2 before hitting a seven iron into the par three third hole to 20 feet from the cup. She would drain the birdie putt to get to one-under-par. On the following hole, Maguire sent her approach over the green and had to chip from the rough. She made a great six-foot par putt to stay in the red digits.
She added another birdie on the sixth hole as she stuck her approach from 84 yards to within a foot.
Maguire featured birdie-chance putts on each of the final three holes, but couldn't get them to drop. On the day, she hit 14 greens, 13 fairways and had 29 putts.
"I think when we saw the course on the practice round, I thought even par was going to be a good number, especially given the conditions that were forecasted," said Maguire.
"Definitely the past two days in the wind, I am very happy with how I played. There wasn't a whole lot I could do about the first day with the wind, rain and cold that we got. I am just glad that I stayed patient, kept giving myself chances and took advantage of as many of them as I could."
In the team standings, Northwestern finished first with 33-over-par 897, while Stanford (905), Arizona State (909), Ohio State (913), Southern California (914), Florida (914) and Kent State (919) rounded out the top eight teams that advanced to match play.
Duke finished the 54 holes in 18th with rounds of 325, 309 and 300 for a 70-over-par, 934.
"To be honest, I would like to have seen better scores," commented Brooks. "We really did not play well in this tournament. Although it feels like you got beat up out there because the conditions were very tough, had the conditions been much easier, we still would not have gone to match play. We didn't play well enough."
Junior Lisa Maguire, who is from Cavan, Ireland, closed the championship with her third straight round of 82 on her way to finishing tied for 116th.
The 18th place team finish for the Blue Devils is the highest team finish in Duke history in the NCAA Championship. The previous high was 16th in 1983, which was the first appearance in the event for the Blue Devils. The match play portion of the tournament will kick off Monday, May 23.
Leona Maguire closed the season with a Duke-record 70.29 season stroke average, 21 rounds of even or under par, eight top five finishes and nine rounds in the 60s. She moved into tied for fifth place on Duke's career charts with her 19th top-five finish, sixth with 26 top-10 placements and owns 62 career rounds of even or under par to rank third all-time on the Blue Devil charts.
BRITWATCH: Leona Maguire's GB and I Vagliano Trophy team-mates for Italy next month, Olivia Mehaffey (Arizona State) and Alice Hewson (Clemson), finished T57 and T74 respectively. Mehaffey had scores of 79, 80 and 74 for 233, Hewson 81-78-77 for 236.
Olivia improved from T66 to T57 with her good finish but Hewson went fromT66 to T74. Arizona State finished third in the team event and so qualified for the match-play stages as did Baylor (7th) for whom former Scottish U18 girls champion Fiona Liddell slumped from T85 to a T102 finish with rounds of 81, 78 and 77 for 236.
Duke Results
T6 T2 Leona Maguire Duke 77 71 70 218 +2
T90 T89 Ana Belac Duke 83 79 77 239 +23
T107 T95 Virginia Elena Carta Duke 83 82 76 241 +2
T101 T95 Sandy Choi Duke 87 77 77 241 +25
T101 T116 Lisa Maguire Duke 82 82 82 246 +30
1 2 3 Team Scores
1 1 1 Northwestern 301 298 298 897 +33
T3 3 2 Stanford 311 298 296 905 +41
T3 T9 3 Arizona State 311 309 289 909 +45
T3 4 4 Ohio State 311 299 303 913 +49
T9 7 T5 Southern California 315 303 296 914 +50
16 12 T5 Florida 320 302 292 914 +50
T3 5 7 Baylor 311 300 306 917 +53
2 2 8 Kent State 303 304 312 919 +55
8 13 9 North Carolina 314 310 296 920 +56
7 6 10 South Carolina 313 300 310 923 +59
T9 11 11 Purdue 315 306 304 925 +61
18 T14 12 Furman 323 302 301 926 +62
T13 T9 13 Texas 317 303 307 927 +63
15 T14 T14 California 319 306 303 928 +64
21 21 T14 Alabama 328 313 287 928 +64
T9 16 T16 Michigan 315 315 299 929 +65
12 8 T16 Miami 316 303 310 929 +65
T19 T17 18 Duke 325 309 300 934 +70
T13 T17 19 Michigan State 317 317 304 938 +74
T19 T19 T20 Florida State 325 310 309 944 +80
17 T19 T20 Clemson 321 314 309 944 +80
24 22 22 Texas Tech 335 313 303 951 +87
22 23 23 Pepperdine 330 320 308 958 +94
23 24 24 Oregon 333 319 308 960 +96
Leading Scores
T3 1 Monica Vaughn Arizona State 74 72 71 217 +1
T6 T2 Leona Maguire Duke 77 71 70 218 +2
1 T2 Jennifer Kupcho * Wake Forest 74 70 74 218 +2
T14 T4 Elodie Van Dievoet Michigan 72 79 68 219 +3
2 T4 August Kim Purdue 72 73 74 219 +3
T6 6 Andrea Lee Stanford 77 71 72 220 +4
T14 7 Amy Lee Baylor 77 74 70 221 +5
T14 T8 Haylee Harford Furman 76 75 71 222 +6
T23 T8 Tiffany Chan Southern California 77 76 69 222 +6
T32 T10 Cheyenne Knight Alabama 78 76 69 223 +7
T3 T10 Ainhoa Olarra South Carolina 76 70 77 223 +7
T10 T10 Albane Valenzuela Stanford 77 73 73 223 +7
Maguire improved her scores each round during the championship. After opening with a 77 Friday, she closed with a one-under 71, and a two-under 70. With the top five finish, Maguire joined only Celine Boutier and Amanda Blumenherst as Duke golfers to finish in the top five of multiple NCAA Championships. Duke has featured a golfer in the top two of the individual leaderboard in each of the last three NCAA Championships – Maguire (T2nd in 2017, 2015), Virginia Elena Carta (1st in 2016).
Arizona State's Monica Vaughn registered back-to-back birdies late in her round on Nos. 6 and No. 7 to take a one stroke lead on the individual leaderboard and ended up holding on with a one-over-par 217 for the individual title. Vaughn was one stroke better than Maguire (218) and Wake Forest's Jennifer Kupcho (218).
"She knew exactly where she stood – she was four back and knew in order to win this she needed to play well," commented Duke head coach Dan Brooks on Maguire. "She shot two under today. The wind wasn't quite as strong today, but it was still a very difficult. Two under was exceptional golf."
In Monday's final round, Maguire opened the day with a great sand save on the par four 10th hole. She then hit her pitching wedge from 103 yards away on the 341-yard, par four 12th to within three feet and drained the birdie to get to one-under. After three straight pars, she would bogey back-to-back holes on 16 and 17. Maguire responded by hitting her approach shot on the par five 18th onto the green for an eagle putt. She would end up tapping in a short birdie to get back to even as she made the turn.
"I played really well all day," said Maguire. "I did exactly what I wanted to do – started with a nice par save on 10, hit some good birdies and just played really steady, solid golf."
Maguire, a native of Cavan, Ireland, parred Nos 1 and 2 before hitting a seven iron into the par three third hole to 20 feet from the cup. She would drain the birdie putt to get to one-under-par. On the following hole, Maguire sent her approach over the green and had to chip from the rough. She made a great six-foot par putt to stay in the red digits.
She added another birdie on the sixth hole as she stuck her approach from 84 yards to within a foot.
Maguire featured birdie-chance putts on each of the final three holes, but couldn't get them to drop. On the day, she hit 14 greens, 13 fairways and had 29 putts.
"I think when we saw the course on the practice round, I thought even par was going to be a good number, especially given the conditions that were forecasted," said Maguire.
"Definitely the past two days in the wind, I am very happy with how I played. There wasn't a whole lot I could do about the first day with the wind, rain and cold that we got. I am just glad that I stayed patient, kept giving myself chances and took advantage of as many of them as I could."
In the team standings, Northwestern finished first with 33-over-par 897, while Stanford (905), Arizona State (909), Ohio State (913), Southern California (914), Florida (914) and Kent State (919) rounded out the top eight teams that advanced to match play.
Duke finished the 54 holes in 18th with rounds of 325, 309 and 300 for a 70-over-par, 934.
"To be honest, I would like to have seen better scores," commented Brooks. "We really did not play well in this tournament. Although it feels like you got beat up out there because the conditions were very tough, had the conditions been much easier, we still would not have gone to match play. We didn't play well enough."
Junior Lisa Maguire, who is from Cavan, Ireland, closed the championship with her third straight round of 82 on her way to finishing tied for 116th.
The 18th place team finish for the Blue Devils is the highest team finish in Duke history in the NCAA Championship. The previous high was 16th in 1983, which was the first appearance in the event for the Blue Devils. The match play portion of the tournament will kick off Monday, May 23.
Leona Maguire closed the season with a Duke-record 70.29 season stroke average, 21 rounds of even or under par, eight top five finishes and nine rounds in the 60s. She moved into tied for fifth place on Duke's career charts with her 19th top-five finish, sixth with 26 top-10 placements and owns 62 career rounds of even or under par to rank third all-time on the Blue Devil charts.
BRITWATCH: Leona Maguire's GB and I Vagliano Trophy team-mates for Italy next month, Olivia Mehaffey (Arizona State) and Alice Hewson (Clemson), finished T57 and T74 respectively. Mehaffey had scores of 79, 80 and 74 for 233, Hewson 81-78-77 for 236.
Olivia improved from T66 to T57 with her good finish but Hewson went fromT66 to T74. Arizona State finished third in the team event and so qualified for the match-play stages as did Baylor (7th) for whom former Scottish U18 girls champion Fiona Liddell slumped from T85 to a T102 finish with rounds of 81, 78 and 77 for 236.
Duke Results
T6 T2 Leona Maguire Duke 77 71 70 218 +2
T90 T89 Ana Belac Duke 83 79 77 239 +23
T107 T95 Virginia Elena Carta Duke 83 82 76 241 +2
T101 T95 Sandy Choi Duke 87 77 77 241 +25
T101 T116 Lisa Maguire Duke 82 82 82 246 +30
1 2 3 Team Scores
1 1 1 Northwestern 301 298 298 897 +33
T3 3 2 Stanford 311 298 296 905 +41
T3 T9 3 Arizona State 311 309 289 909 +45
T3 4 4 Ohio State 311 299 303 913 +49
T9 7 T5 Southern California 315 303 296 914 +50
16 12 T5 Florida 320 302 292 914 +50
T3 5 7 Baylor 311 300 306 917 +53
2 2 8 Kent State 303 304 312 919 +55
8 13 9 North Carolina 314 310 296 920 +56
7 6 10 South Carolina 313 300 310 923 +59
T9 11 11 Purdue 315 306 304 925 +61
18 T14 12 Furman 323 302 301 926 +62
T13 T9 13 Texas 317 303 307 927 +63
15 T14 T14 California 319 306 303 928 +64
21 21 T14 Alabama 328 313 287 928 +64
T9 16 T16 Michigan 315 315 299 929 +65
12 8 T16 Miami 316 303 310 929 +65
T19 T17 18 Duke 325 309 300 934 +70
T13 T17 19 Michigan State 317 317 304 938 +74
T19 T19 T20 Florida State 325 310 309 944 +80
17 T19 T20 Clemson 321 314 309 944 +80
24 22 22 Texas Tech 335 313 303 951 +87
22 23 23 Pepperdine 330 320 308 958 +94
23 24 24 Oregon 333 319 308 960 +96
Leading Scores
T3 1 Monica Vaughn Arizona State 74 72 71 217 +1
T6 T2 Leona Maguire Duke 77 71 70 218 +2
1 T2 Jennifer Kupcho * Wake Forest 74 70 74 218 +2
T14 T4 Elodie Van Dievoet Michigan 72 79 68 219 +3
2 T4 August Kim Purdue 72 73 74 219 +3
T6 6 Andrea Lee Stanford 77 71 72 220 +4
T14 7 Amy Lee Baylor 77 74 70 221 +5
T14 T8 Haylee Harford Furman 76 75 71 222 +6
T23 T8 Tiffany Chan Southern California 77 76 69 222 +6
T32 T10 Cheyenne Knight Alabama 78 76 69 223 +7
T3 T10 Ainhoa Olarra South Carolina 76 70 77 223 +7
T10 T10 Albane Valenzuela Stanford 77 73 73 223 +7
Labels: Student golf, US COLLEGES
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