HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. — Eight of the top 10 women’s golf teams, including the 10th-ranked LSU women’s golf team will be in action this weekend at the NCAA Fall Preview, beginning here Friday at the Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort.
The tournament, set for the El Campeon course at Mission Inn, gives teams a first look at the course which will be used for the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships in May, 2001. This will mark the second straight year the event has been held on a resort layout, having been held at Sunriver in Oregon a year ago. Mission Inn is located about 40 miles from Orlando.
Stetson and the Central Florida Sports Commission are the hosts for this event which include the following ranked teams in the MasterCard rankings: No. 1 Arizona, No. 3 Duke, No. 4 Southern California, No. 5 Auburn, No. 7 Texas, No. 8 San Jose State, No. 9 Georgia, No. 10 LSU, No. 11 Arizona State, No. 12 Tennessee, No. 14 Wake Forest, No. 16 New Mexico State, No. 22 Florida, No. 24 Oregon and No. 25 Ohio State.
Also in the field are Central Florida, Florida State, Miami, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Stetson.
LSU is coming off a fourth place finish in the Auburn Tiger-Derby Invitational a week ago on the University Club course in Auburn, a tournament in which LSU shot the best round of the day on Sunday after struggling to finish rounds on Friday and Saturday.
“For some reason, we have a tendency to start a big slow,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “We finished very strong in Auburn and we hope that round will carry over through this weekend. We need to get off to a good start and then be able to finish a round to post the type of score you need against this type of field. Plus, we want to get a good luck at a course we plan to be back playing on come the end of May.”
LSU will go with Shreveport junior Meredith Duncan in the lead off spot on Friday. Duncan finished the Auburn tournament in fifth place, her 10th collegiate top 10 finish. The remainder of the lineup will be senior Katy Harris of South Bend, Ind., senior Lesley McClurg of Redmond, Wash., junior Lindy Hitdlebaugh of Gretna and freshman Devon Day of Greer, S. C., who will make her debut as part of the team lineup for the Tigers.