BATON ROUGE — The 10th-ranked LSU women’s golf team returns to action Friday at the Lady Gamecock Invitational in Columbia, S.C.
The Lady Tigers will be competing on the University Club layout outside Columbia, a 5,996 yard par 72 layout.
Joining the Tigers and the host Gamecocks in the event will be Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas A&M.
LSU is coming off a third place finish in the opening event of the spring season in the SunTrust Lady Gator in Florida with LSU finishing strong after showing a bit of rust in the opening round. The Tigers are 10th in the country in the Golf Week/Sagarin collegiate poll and presently stand 11th in the College Golf Foundation/MasterCard rankings.
LSU will go with its standard lineup featuring sophomore Meredith Duncan of Shreveport who has three top 10s this season, including a team-best 10th in the last event in Gainesville. Duncan leads the team in overall stroke average at 75.27 strokes per round. Duncan will be joined by Kenner senior Lisette Lee, who is just behind Duncan in stroke average at 75.40 per round. Lee has one top 10 this season and was 16th in the Florida tournament.
Tina Howard, the New Zealand sophomore, had a good opening tournament after sitting out the fall after tendon surgery, shooting rounds of 77-78-75 to finish in a tie for 16th. Also expected to participate for LSU will be Katy Wilkinson (77.27) and Lindy Hitdlebaugh (79.92).
“I was very pleased with the way we finished in Florida,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “We need to come out of the gate with a good start and focus in early. This is a golf course we are very familiar with and that should help us tremendously.”
Last year, the Tigers finished fourth in the Lady Gamecock in a rain-shortened event and then was third in the important NCAA East Regional last May.
This year’s 54-hole event runs through Sunday.