Some are saying the Duke women's golf team is the best in history.
The high praise will be history, however, if the Blue Devils aren't the best team next week.
Based on a season-long level of performance that compares favorably to Arizona State's celebrated 1995 team, the Blue Devils obviously have the goods to win their second NCAA championship in three seasons next week in Auburn, Ala.
Only time will tell if the Blue Devils will be good enough when it matters most.
"I don't think we're going to just walk through it, like some people think, but I do think we have a great chance," senior Leigh Anne Hardin said. "We've had a good year, and we've got a lot of confidence in ourselves. But it's nationals and there's a little bit of pressure, and it's a tough course with great competition.
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"Everyone is bringing their best, so we need to do that too."
If the Blue Devils bring their best to the Grand National Lake Course beginning Tuesday, they should bring the 24-team field to its knees.
Last week at the East Regional, when 2003 U.S. Women's Amateur champion Virada "Oui" Nirapathpongporn posted two shaky scores that didn't even count for the team because four teammates scored better, the Blue Devils still won by 22 strokes.
And that's the way it went throughout the season, when even Duke's lone loss revealed the stunning strength of the team.
Competing with just four golfers because Nirapathpongporn and sophomore Liz Janangelo were busy competing in an LPGA major, the Blue Devils still found themselves in contention at the Liz Murphey Collegiate heading into the final day before settling for third place.
The Blue Devils will be at full strength next week, and the bad news for the rest of the field is that the nation's best team is playing its best golf.
The Blue Devils are so on top of their game that for the week leading up to the team's departure today, three golfers stayed away from Coach Dan Brooks and headed home for a little home-cooking. Nirapathpongporn and Hardin stayed at Duke but also steered clear of their coach on the eve of their senior swan song.
"Three of my players are at home, just relaxing and playing hard and practicing hard. And two of them have been here, the two that I work with the most as far as their swings and everything, and we're not doing anything with those swings because they don't need it," Brooks said. "We're in a place where we need to be as far as being ready to play.
"I've got to find the first tee, and I've got to look at that sheet that tells us who we play with and when. The good news is that's about where we are right now."
Nirapathpongporn, the 2002 NCAA individual champion, is just the No. 3 player on a team that has five players ranked among the top 14 in the latest Golfweek rankings. Janangelo is the top-ranked player and the top candidate for national player of the year, and freshman Brittany Lang is ranked fourth and is a candidate for both national player of the year and freshman of the year.
"It helps to know that your teammates are all good players and they're going to fight to the end, and if you have a bad day, they're going to be there for you," said Hardin, whose No. 13 ranking is just No. 4 on her own team. Nirapathpongporn is ranked No. 6; freshman Anna Grzebien is No. 14.
"It does take some of the pressure off," Hardin added. "That's a luxury that a lot of teams don't have."
It's a luxury that the Blue Devils didn't have in late March, when Janangelo and Nirapathpongporn competed in the LPGA Nabisco Championship. That left the four remaining Blue Devils to compete against five-player teams.
But with no margin for error, the Blue Devils made few errors and nearly pulled off an unlikely victory. Brooks also insists that he didn't make an error in judgment by leaving the team vulnerable to the one blemish that could cost it the mythical title as "best team ever" in some observers' eyes.
"I never even hesitated because there could be no better development for Liz and 'Oui' than to be at the Nabisco -- what a great way to develop your mind and your game and what a great experience," said Brooks, who is seeking his third NCAA title since 1999. "And there could be no better development for my four others than to be a four-person team against a bunch of five-person teams.
"I saw it as a great thing all the way around."
Even though the loss might deserve an asterisk, it's one thing that will separate this Duke team and the 1995 Arizona State team. The Sun Devils, led that season by LPGA star Wendy Ward, won all 10 of their tournaments.
Ward won five tournaments as an individual, but her stroke average would rank just third on this current Duke team. As a team, the Blue Devils' stroke average is nearly two strokes lower than Arizona State's over the course of the season.
"I don't like to compare athletes because it's hard to do that, but I'm perfectly willing to compare numbers," Brooks said. "And if you look at our scoring averages compared to teams we've had and to the Arizona State team, the numbers speak for themselves.
"Now they could have been in bad weather all the time and they were on different golf courses, so you still have a problem comparing. But I think the averages speak for themselves; we have some really good averages.
"Now, they won every tournament and we haven't, and that's significant."
Of course, the comparison won't be controversial at all if the Blue Devils don't take care of business next week. And while the Blue Devils have been aware of the comparisons all along, this don't-worry-be-happy team hasn't worried about them.
"We don't spend a lot of time on that," Brooks said. "It's just like a golf swing: You don't want a golf swing to spend a lot of time in positions and places it doesn't need to be.
"We're not afraid of it, but it doesn't have a lot to do with hitting a golf shot. I just told them to talk openly about it and have fun with it and enjoy because they worked hard to get to this place, where people can come and talk to you about being the best."
NOTE -- Nirapathpongporn and Hardin said they planned to take different paths in pursuit of their pro careers. Nirapathpongporn said she planned to join the Futures Tour right away in her attempt to make it to the LPGA Tour; Hardin said she planned to work on her game throughout the summer in Orlando before trying to make the cut at LPGA Qualifying School beginning in late September.
