LAKE ELMO, Minn. – The Duke women’s golf team rolled in 17 birdies on the back nine on Tuesday at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate Presented by 3M, as the Blue Devils shook off a slow start to finish with a 4-under-par, 284, at the 6,408-yard, par 72 Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo, Minn.
With 18 holes remaining, Duke is in fourth with a 36-hole ledger of even-par 576, after carding rounds of 292 and 284. Virginia continues to hold the lead with a 9-under, 567, while Wake Forest (573), South Carolina (574), Michigan (576), Duke (576), Texas (579), Florida (580), Oregon (581), Arizona State (585) and Auburn (593) round out the top 10 teams.
Blue Devil junior Phoebe Brinker and rookie Andie Smith each fired 3-under-par scores of 69 on Tuesday to pace Duke in round two. Brinker, who hails from Wilmington, Del., moved up to a tie for seventh with a 3-under-par, 141. Virginia’s Amanda Sambach leads the individual action with an 11-under, 133.
How It Happened
• Duke featured a slow start to the day with only four birdies and all five golfers over par on the front nine. Overall, the Blue Devils made the turn at 8-over-par.
• On the back it was a different story, as Duke started rolling in birdies and finished with 17 on the back nine. The Blue Devils shot 12-under-par over the final nine holes to move from 10th-place on the leaderboard up to a tie for fourth.
• Freshman Andie Smith went out first for the Blue Devils. She was 3-over-par over the first six holes, but was able to get her putter rolling starting with an 8-footer for birdie on No. 8. Smith then birdied four out of the first five holes on the back nine as she drained three putts over 25 or more feet for birdie. She closed with a 10-footer for birdie on No. 16 and a two-putt birdie on the par-5 No. 18. Smith hit 13 greens, 13 fairways and rolled 29 putts.
• After turning in an even-par, 72, on day one, Phoebe Brinker birdied four out of the final seven holes on Tuesday to finish with a 3-under, 69. She was 1-over through 11 holes and just couldn’t get many putts to drop until the back nine. Brinker dialed in her irons and stuck approaches on No. 12 and No. 13 to four feet and six feet, respectively, and made the birdie putts. She then hit her 54-degree wedge on No. 14 from 95 yards to…
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