KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The ninth-ranked LSU Lady Tiger golf team, after nearly a month off, goes back into action Friday in the opening round of the Mercedes-Benz Women’s Collegiate Championships at the Gettysvue Polo, Golf and Country Club.
The tournament, in just its fourth year, is already viewed as one of the prime stops on the fall golf tour because of the sponsorship involvement of Mercedes-Benz and the Gettysvue’s venue which is extremely hilly and a good test for the collegiate players.
Defending champion Georgia is not back to defend the crown, but seven of the top 20 teams in the latest MasterCard rankings, including LSU, highlight the field.
The field includes No. 2 Duke, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 9 LSU, 12th-ranked New Mexico State, 14th-ranked Purdue, 19th-ranked Texas Christian and 20th Northwestern. Also in the tournament are Arkansas, Furman, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, North Carolina and Vanderbilt. Completing a field will be the Swedish National Team.
“We’ve had some time to work on a few things the last few weeks,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “I haven’t been disappointed with our first two events last month, but we need to come out and begin to play with a little more consistency from start to finish.”
The Tigers will look to again continue the good performances of its one-two punch of junior Meredith Duncan of Shreveport (75.00 strokes per round) and senior Katy Harris of South Bend, Ind. (75.60 average). Also in the LSU lineup will be senior Leslie McClurg of Redmond, Wash., (77.60), junior Lindy Hitdlebaugh of Gretna (78.80) and freshman Devon Day of Greer, S.C. (81.00).
“We had some good practices and now we need to focus in on every shot to try to make the first round mean as much as the last,” said Bahnsen.
The 54-hole tournament will run through Sunday.