HILTON HEAD, S.C. — The LSU women’s golf team faces its toughest test of the fall campaign beginning Friday in the annual Rolex/Golf World/Palmetto Dunes Collegiate Invitational.
The Tigers, ranked 10th in the latest poll, will face 11 other teams all ranked in the top 15 women’s teams in the nation over the Arthur Hills Course at Palmetto Hall (par 72, 6,257 yards).
This 15th annual event, presented by Cleveland Golf, is an invitation only event for the top 12 men’s and women’s teams who will conduct separate tournaments. LSU has been a regular invitee to this event since the second half of the 1990s, with this its fifth straight appearance.
A year ago, LSU finished fifth, but shot some of its lowest rounds in school history, posting a 290 in the opening round for the second best round ever. Its 54-hole total of 892 was the eighth lowest in school totals.
With LSU in the field will be top-ranked Duke along with Southern California, Tennessee, Stanford, Auburn, Pepperdine, Texas, Purdue, Georgia and Arizona State.
“This was the tournament that started us in the right direction toward the spring season a year ago,” LSU head coach Karen Bahnsen said. “We need to take the right step forward again this weekend in a tournament field of this caliber.”
LSU will go with its usual lineup of seniors Katy Harris of South Bend, Ind., and Lesley McClurg of Redmond, Wash.; juniors Meredith Duncan of Shreveport and Lindy Hitdlebaugh of Gretna, and freshman Devon Day of Greer, South Carolina.
Duncan is ranked 14th in the nation in the latest College Golf Foundation individual poll which came out earlier this week. Duncan is 20th and Harris 26th in this week’s GolfWeek/Sagarin Performance Index.
This will be the Tigers final stroke play event of the fall, before taking part in the College Golf Foundation Match Play Invitational on Nov. 10-12.