Leona Maguire lands Annika Award; second individual as Duke qualifies for NCAA matchplay
Leona Maguire en route to a four under 68 in the final round of strokeplay qualifying at the Concession
Slieve Russell's Leona Maguire finished tied second in the individual to lead Duke University into the matchplay stages of the NCAA Division 1 Women's Championship before picking up the 2015 Annika Award for her outstanding college season.
The 20-year old freshman from Ballyconnell in Co Cavan was voted most outstanding Division I women's player after she racked up three wins and finished outside the top seven only once in 10 events.
The award. which is voted on by players, coaches and the media. was established in 2014 by the Fred Haskins Commission and the ANNIKA Foundation.
"Obviosuly winning the Annika Award is an incredible honour," Leona told a press conference.. "To win golf tournaments is one thing but to win an award that is voted on by your peers and your coaches and the media, that's another level.
Leona Maguire and Dan Brooks talk to the press
"When I saw [Duke's] Alison [Lee] getting presented with the award back in September, I probably didn't think I was going to be sitting here. It's an incredible honour to have my name on a trophy that Annika has put her name to and it's a nice way to cap off a really nice season."
Duke made eight key birdies down the stretch to finish second overall heading into Tuesday's match play at the 6,468-yard, par 72 Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida.
The Blue Devils struggled from the start and were looking like the No. 4 seed overall before freshman Gurbani Singh birdied four out of the last six holes, Celine Boutier rolled in a birdie on No. 17 and Leona Maguire carded her fourth birdie of the day on No. 18.
“I think this is probably the toughest golf course we've played all season,” said Maguire. who closed with a four under 68 to tie for second on two under, one stroke behind Alabama's Emma Talley.
“She finished the season with 24 even or under par rounds to tie Amanda Blumenherst’s mark of 24 from the 2005-06 campaign”
Duke will face seventh-seeded Texas Tech with Lisa Maguire facing Sarah Brown, Singh against Lauren Mason, Sandy Choi versus Stephanie Bertelsen, Leona Maguire against Gabby Barker and Celine Boutier taking on Kimmy Hill.
Leona Maguire held the individual lead early in the round, after chipping in for birdie on No. 2 and rolling in her second eagle of the season on the 511-yard, par five third hole. She birdied he seventh to get to four-under for the day and two-under for the tournament and turned in four-under-par 32.
But she opened the back nine with back-to-back bogeys at the 10th and 11th to drop back to even par for the tournament before closing with birdies on the 14th and 18th to finish at two-under-par, one shot behind NCAA individual champion Talley (285).
“Yeah, I'm incredibly happy with my round today,” said Maguire. “I got off to a pretty hot start, chipped in for birdie on two and had a nice eagle on three and then chipped in again on seven for birdie again.
"It was a great start. I knew I had to make up some ground on Emma [Talley]. She was getting away. I had two bogeys on 10 and 11, then got it back coming down the stretch. Emma is an unbelievable player, and to post that kind of score around a golf course like this is pretty good.”
Maguire placed tied second with a 72-hole score of two-under-par, 286, along with Arkansas’ Gaby Lopez. With her two rounds of even or under par for the tournament,
Lisa and Leona Maguire enjoy a laugh at the NCAA finals
She finished the season with 24 even or under par rounds to tie Amanda Blumenherst’s mark of 24 from the 2005-06 campaign and finished the day hitting 12 greens, 11 fairways and a team-best 27 putts.
“Well, as we've all known on our team, Leona is the least high maintenance player we have,” said Duke coach Dan Brooks. “What that means is that she's like a lot of the best players that I've had. I end up not watching them play that much. I'm out there with a lot of players that need a little help."
I spent a lot of time with Gurbani today on the back side and we got some good things going. Her front side was not so good, so I didn't really get to watch much of Leona's play other than the little thing we do with Golfstat. But she's just tremendous. I know what she's doing out there. She's thinking really well. She's sizing up the golf course and making smart decisions all round long, and that's how you get scores like that. It's really good.”
After opening her day tied sixth overall, Singh struggled out of the gate with an eight-over-par score through 11 holes. Singh, a product of New Delhi, India, was able to regroup big time on her way to closing with four birdies over her final six holes to finish with a 76. She placed tied 14th overall with a nine-over-par, 297. Singh hit her final seven greens in a row and had only 13 putts on the back nine to close with a 33, after shooting 43 on the front.
Lisa Maguire struggled in the final round turning in rounds of 82 and 83, respectively to finish 83rd with a 399.
The Golf Channel will feature pre-game coverage of the match play championship from 9:30-10:30 a.m., followed by live coverage from 10:30-12:30 p.m., of the first matches. The afternoon matches will have pre-game coverage from 3-3:30 p.m., followed by live coverage from 3:30-7:00 p.m. There will be post round coverage from 7-8 p.m., as well.
“Yeah, it's exciting,” said Maguire about the prospect of match play on Tuesday. “The first year for team match play, I think the whole team is really looking forward to tomorrow.
"Obviously having Europeans on the team, we all have quite a bit of experience in match play, which is definitely going to play to our benefit tomorrow. I think we've been all playing pretty solid, and we're looking forward to getting into match play tomorrow.”
Previous Finish Name Scores
Duke Results
3 T2 Leona Maguire Duke 71 74 73 68 286 -2
T6 T14 Gurbani Singh Duke 75 74 72 76 297 +9
T21 T29 Celine Boutier Duke 73 80 72 77 302 +14
T45 58 Sandy Choi Duke 74 81 75 82 312 +24
129 83 Lisa Maguire Duke 89 85 82 83 339 +51
1 2 3 4 Team Scores
T3 1 2 1 Southern California 297 303 298 294 1192 +40
T1 2 1 2 Duke 293 309 292 303 1197 +45
T3 3 T4 3 Baylor 297 307 306 288 1198 +46
T1 T10 7 4 Stanford 293 323 296 287 1199 +47
5 T7 3 5 Arizona 300 311 294 300 1205 +53
T6 6 T4 T6 Tennessee 301 309 300 302 1212 +60
T22 9 12 T6 Texas Tech 319 294 307 292 1212 +60
T6 T12 8 8 Washington 301 316 297 300 1214 +62
T15 T10 11 9 Arkansas 310 306 303 298 1217 +65
T15 T7 10 10 Northwestern 310 301 305 302 1218 +66
T8 T4 9 11 UC Davis 305 304 306 305 1220 +68
10 T4 6 12 Purdue 307 302 302 311 1222 +70
T15 T20 T13 13 Wake Forest 310 320 297 297 1224 +72
T15 T12 T13 14 Alabama 310 307 310 299 1226 +74
T22 22 15 15 UCLA 319 318 293 303 1233 +81
Start Finish Player Team Scores
1 1 Emma Talley Alabama 70 73 73 69 285 -3
T4 T2 Gaby Lopez Arkansas 70 76 74 66 286 -2
3 T2 Leona Maguire Duke 71 74 73 68 286 -2
T6 4 Dylan Kim Baylor 73 76 72 67 288 E
2 5 Monica Vaughn * Arizona State 75 71 71 72 289 +1
T6 6 Mariah Stackhouse Stanford 68 78 75 70 291 +3
T10 T7 A.J. Newell Tennessee 73 73 76 70 292 +4
T16 T7 Lauren Kim Stanford 71 80 72 69 292 +4
T10 9 Silvia Garces * Tulane 74 75 73 71 293 +5
T16 T10 Suchaya Tangkamolprasert Northwestern 73 74 76 72 295 +7
T10 T10 Gabriella Then Southern California 75 74 73 73 295 +7
T10 T12 Caroline Nistrup * LSU 72 74 76 74 296 +8
T10 T12 Charlotte Thomas Washington 74 77 71 74 296 +8
T6 T14 Gurbani Singh Duke 75 74 72 76 297 +9
T6 T14 Annie Park Southern California 70 76 75 76 297 +9
T24 T16 Justine Dreher * South Carolina 76 76 74 72 298 +10
T10 T16 Marissa Dodd Wake Forest 72 77 73 76 298 +10
T18 T18 Bronte Law UCLA 79 74 71 75 299 +11
T24 T18 Dana Finkelstein * UNLV 75 79 72 73 299 +11
T29 T18 Lindsey Weaver Arizona 72 78 77 72 299 +11
T34 T21 Hayley Davis Baylor 77 73 78 72 300 +12
T29 T21 Laura Lonardi Baylor 72 77 78 73 300 +12
T18 T21 Marijosse Navarro * Texas A&M 77 74 73 76 300 +12
T40 T21 Karen Chung Southern California 77 79 73 71 300 +12
T29 T25 Meghan MacLaren * Florida International 77 78 72 74 301 +13
T21 T25 Marta Martin Purdue 75 73 77 76 301 +13
T24 T25 Stephanie Bertelsen Texas Tech 78 73 75 75 301 +13
T24 T25 Krystal Quihuis Arizona 76 77 73 75 301 +13
T34 T29 Kacie Komoto Northwestern 77 73 78 74 302 +14
T58 T29 Gabby Barker Texas Tech 76 72 85 69 302 +14
T21 T29 Celine Boutier Duke 73 80 72 77 302 +14
T24 T32 Katelyn Dambaugh * South Carolina 70 82 74 77 303 +15
T40 T32 Kyung Kim Southern California 75 77 77 74 303 +15
T34 T34 Anna Newell Tennessee 75 79 74 76 304 +16
T45 T34 Kendall Prince Arizona 76 80 74 74 304 +16
T40 T34 Shannon Aubert Stanford 73 81 75 75 304 +16
T29 T34 Paige Lee UC Davis 73 79 75 77 304 +16
T21 T38 Linn Andersson Purdue 75 77 73 80 305 +17
T40 T38 Eimi Koga Washington 77 78 74 76 305 +17
T18 T38 Wanasa Zhou Arizona 77 77 70 81 305 +17
T4 T38 Leilanie Kim * Idaho 74 75 71 85 305 +17
T34 T38 Jennifer Yang Washington 73 81 74 77 305 +17
T53 T43 Sierra Sims Wake Forest 78 84 70 74 306 +18
T66 T43 Bev Vatananugulkit UC Davis 78 79 77 72 306 +18
T34 T45 Aurora Kan Purdue 76 77 75 79 307 +19
T78 T45 Lauren Mason Texas Tech 81 73 82 71 307 +19
T58 47 Betty Chen UC Davis 78 72 83 75 308 +20
T58 48 Alana Uriell Arkansas 80 73 80 76 309 +21
T78 T49 Lucia Polo Tennessee 80 77 79 74 310 +22
T66 T49 Giovana Maymon Baylor 75 81 78 76 310 +22
T93 T51 Erynne Lee UCLA 83 85 72 71 311 +23
T89 T51 Allison Emrey Wake Forest 79 87 73 72 311 +23
T66 T51 Louise Ridderstrom UCLA 76 81 77 77 311 +23
T58 T51 Regina Plasencia Arkansas 77 79 77 78 311 +23
T66 T51 Kimmy Hill Texas Tech 84 76 74 77 311 +23
T83 T51 Cyd Okino Washington 78 81 78 74 311 +23
T73 T51 Ying Luo Washington 77 80 78 76 311 +23
T45 58 Sandy Choi Duke 74 81 75 82 312 +24
T53 59 Sarah Cho Northwestern 77 78 77 81 313 +25
T73 T60 August Kim Purdue 83 75 77 79 314 +26
T58 T60 Andrea Wong UC Davis 76 76 81 81 314 +26
T93 T62 Mariana Sims Wake Forest 81 78 81 75 315 +27
T85 T62 Anna Appert Lund Purdue 81 79 78 77 315 +27
T73 T62 Erin Choi UCLA 81 81 73 80 315 +27
T58 T62 Emmie Pietila Tennessee 81 81 71 82 315 +27
T66 T62 Cammie Gray Alabama 82 76 76 81 315 +27
T78 T62 Amy Lee Southern California 82 76 78 79 315 +27
T58 T62 Blair Lewis UC Davis 83 77 73 82 315 +27
T89 T69 Lakareber Abe Alabama 76 80 83 77 316 +28
T53 T69 Hannah Pietila Tennessee 73 80 79 84 316 +28
T103 T71 Janie Jackson Alabama 82 81 80 75 318 +30
T99 T71 Casey Danielson Stanford 81 87 74 76 318 +30
T96 T73 Samantha Marks Arkansas 85 81 75 78 319 +31
T89 T73 Hana Lee Northwestern 83 76 80 80 319 +31
T93 T73 Manon Gidali Arizona 76 79 85 79 319 +31
T108 T76 Hannah Kim Northwestern 86 84 74 76 320 +32
T85 T76 Summar Roachell Arkansas 83 78 77 82 320 +32
T120 78 Quirine Eijkenboom Stanford 85 84 79 73 321 +33
T99 79 Lydia Choi UCLA 83 82 77 80 322 +34
119 80 Mia Landegren Alabama 88 78 81 78 325 +37
T108 81 Erica Herr Wake Forest 82 81 81 82 326 +38
T114 82 Sarah Brown Texas Tech 86 84 76 86 332 +44
129 83 Lisa Maguire Duke 89 85 82 83 339 +51
131 84 Lauren Whyte Baylor 81 85 94 82 342 +54
