HONOLULU — The LSU women’s golf team, ranked 12th in the latest Sagarin/Golfweek rankings, faces four-other teams ranked in the top 20 as they begin play Tuesday in the 16th annual Dr. Donnis Thompson Rainbow Wahine Invitational.
The 54-hole tournament, which runs through Thursday, will be played over the 6,075 yard, par-72, Olomana Golf Links. Olomana is a popular public course located some 20 minutes outside Honolulu which averages some 97,000 rounds annually.
This will be the Lady Tigers second trip to Hawaii, having finished third behind Arizona and Tulsa in the 1998 event which was held on the Kaneohe Military Course. There LSU’s Ashley Winn won the individual title with a school record 54-hole total of 4-under 212. Second went to then LSU freshman, Katy Wilkinson, at 2-over 218.
Wilkinson, now a senior and playing under her married name, Katy Harris, will lead the Tigers against a field highlighted by defending champion Arizona, now 2nd in the Golfweek ratings. LSU will also battle highly-ranked TCU (14), Oklahoma State (16) and Oklahoma (20) in trying to win its first title of the year. Also in the field along with host Hawaii are Wyoming, Oregon State, UTEP, Cincinnati, Weber State, Colorado, Colorado State, BYU, Minnesota, Wichita State, Montana State and the Osaka Gakuin team from Japan.
Harris, ranked 10th in the nation in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, leads LSU with a 73.82 stroke average and five top 10s, including a playoff loss last week in the Lady Gamecock Classic in Columbia, S.C.
Harris had four runnerup finishes in her career, but none until last week since the three she recorded as a freshman.
With Harris in the LSU lineup will be junior Meredith Duncan (74.06), senior Leslie McClurg (78.00), junior Lindy Hitdlebaugh (78.85) and freshman Isabel Dornellas (79.83).
“This was a wonderful experience for our team in 1998 and I am hopeful that will happen again,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “This is a golf facility we are looking forward to seeing and it gives the girls a chance to experience many new conditions that will help them as we head into the post-season.”
Arizona could have the top two players in the nation on hand for the tournament in Lorena Ochoa and Natalie Gulbis, but Ochoa’s status is unknown as she has been playing a few events on the LPGA circuit and played this past weekend in the Nabisco Championships in California.
LSU’s Duncan is ranked 16th in the nation entering the tournament with four top 10 finishes, while Maria Boden of Oklahoma State comes in 18th in the nation.
For LSU after the Hawaii trip, the team returns home to host the 20th LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic at the school’s University Club which will feature a match up of three of the SEC’s top teams: Georgia, Auburn and LSU.