Even by Leona Maguire’s high standards, it was a blistering start to her college season, as she won the Jim West Challenge by three strokes. It was her second round, however, that really stood out, a bogey-free eight-under-par 63, which knocked two strokes off her previous best low round.

Last season, she posted a 70.29 average, the second best scoring average in NCAA history, and if she posts a few more special rounds like that one, the great Lorena Ochoa’s average of 70.13, set in the 2002 campaign, will be under threat.

The Jim West Challenge in Texas was her eighth win at collegiate level, and she posted a school-record 54-hole total of 200, helping her team to record 33-under and the win.

It is no surprise then that Duke University couldn’t be happier to still have her as a student, given that she is older than the likes of Brooke Henderson and Lydia Ko on the LPGA Tour.

Yet now in the final year of her psychology degree, the 22-year-old is learning more than just golf, and her memories of college will live with her for the rest of her life.

When Tiger Woods was asked what his biggest regret was in an interview with Charlie Rose last year – and you would imagine the American would have many – he said that he regrets not staying in college in Stanford for one more year. Doing that would have meant no 1997 Masters, although perhaps such an event would have inevitably happened eventually anyway. Despite billions of dollars in earnings and all the trophies he had earnt, he still yearned for his college years.

For every early pro success story, there are a few failures, and when Ty Tryon successfully qualified for the PGA Tour at just 17 years old and turned professional, PGA Tour veteran Scott Hoch quipped, “I think he’s rushing. He might be missing some of the best blackouts he’ll ever have.”

While Maguire might be too busy practising for that kind of devilment regularly, her head coach at Duke, Dan Brooks, is quick to point out how grounded she is.

“What make it all even more special is the type of person Leona is: she works hard, she appreciates the opportunities, and she sees a big picture – including a degree from Duke. She’s earned these accolades, and they wouldn’t be going to a more appreciative student-athlete.”

When she eventually turns professional, she will be a better rounded person, and having gotten used to winning, a more confident player when she takes on the might of the LPGA Tour.