Duke maintains slim lead among deep Annika field

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (Sept. 18, 2018) – The same storm cell that upended the first round of the Annika Intercollegiate on Monday also made conditions on Tuesday very scoreable for the top women’s college teams in the nation. Duke led the 12-team all-star field with holes still to complete on Monday afternoon, and on Tuesday, the Blue Devils held tightly to that spot.

Duke is 19 under through 36 holes at Royal Golf Club, and has a two-shot cushion on Alabama. The Blue Devils counted three scores of par or better on Tuesday, including a 7-under 65 from junior Ana Belac. It’s a new course record at Royal Golf Club.

The numbers surrounding Belac’s round are impressive. It’s a career-best round for the Portoroz, Slovenia native, and included eight birdies, which tied her career-high. Belac has now made 15 birdies in two days as she helped lead Duke to the top of the leaderboard.

“The big difference between today and yesterday for me was that I was rolling in some more putts and made less mistakes,” Belac said. “But overall, the key for my good game was staying patient and hitting one shot at a time. I’m really proud of how my team is doing and supporting each other on and off the course.”

At 11 under, Belac leads the individual race by one shot. Alabama’s Kenzie Wright is one shot back at 10 under after back-to-back rounds of 67. Alabama transfer Jiwon Jeon, who was runner-up to teammate Kristen Gillman at the U.S. Women’s Amateur last month, also had 65 on Tuesday. It bumped her into a tie for 16th.

Alabama is 17 under, and within striking distance of Duke. UCLA is third at 16 under, while USC is right behind them at 15 under. The leaderboard begins to spread out a little bit from there with Texas at 10 under in fifth. Defending champion Arkansas is 9 under, in solo sixth.

Information from Duke Athletics used in this report