GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The LSU women’s golf team hopes to leave its mark on the final event on the present University of Florida Golf Course as it begins play here Friday in the Southeastern Conference Women’s Golf Championships.
The course, originally built in 1921 as the Gainesville Golf and Country Club, will be totally renovated and redesigned in a $4 million project which is scheduled to begin Monday after the tournament concludes on Sunday.
The history of the course and the project itself has been followed since February in the Golf Plus section of Sports Illustrated.
The course in its present form is familiar to most of the Southeastern Conference women’s teams who normally participate in the SunTrust Lady Gator Invitational in late February. The course that has at times played shorter than its 5,800-yards could set up for some low scores if the wind stays down and the temperatures rise to their expected low 80s levels by the weekend.
LSU will be looking for one thing when the Tigers tee off at 10:30 a.m. on Friday and that is a strong start. The Lady Tigers have notoriously been slow starters in this event, only to make a dramatic rally at the end of the event. Last year, LSU was in a tie for 9th after the first round, 15 strokes out of first. The Tigers rallied from 11 strokes down in the final round to get to second, two shot behind Auburn.
LSU has four runner-up finishes and no finish worse than fourth in the past six events, but the Lady Tigers, ranked 12th in the GolfWeek/Sagarin rankings are still looking for their first SEC title since 1992.
“The key is for us to get off to a good start,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “We know the course, although it will probably play a little differently than it does in late February when we are hear every year. But we have the knowledge, but so do many of the other teams. We just need to come out focused at the beginning and try to put together some scores like we had at our Classic. If we do that, then we’ll see where that puts us and hopefully we can be in a much better position this time around.”
LSU broke three school records in winning the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic two weeks ago in Baton Rouge at the University Club, shooting a 54-hole total of even-par 864. That was eighth shots better than fourth-ranked Auburn and 20 shots better than seventh-ranked Georgia. Those two teams are expected to contend again, with Auburn the defending champions. Also expected to be a factor are the Lady Vols of Tennessee, ranked fifth.
The Tigers are going to go with the same lineup they have used in the last two tournaments and it seems to be clicking, especially getting the crucial fourth score in when needed.
Senior Katy Harris, whose stroke average of 73.30 is the lowest in LSU history, presently ahead of the Jenny Lidback mark of 1986. She will be joined by junior Meredith Duncan, senior Lesley McClurg, junior Lindy Hitdlebaugh and freshman Isabel Dornellas.
“We’ve really played as a team since the last round in Hawaii,” said Bahnsen. “This is where we need to keep that going and just keep playing solid golf as we get ready for the NCAA Regionals next month.”
The 12 teams of the SEC will play 18 holes each day with the final round set for Sunday.