BATON ROUGE — LSU women’s golf coach Karen Bahnsen announced that she has received national letters-of-intent from four student-athletes who will become LSU Lady Tiger golfers.
The four are twins Melissa Jane and Nicola Amy Eaton from South Africa; Victoria Meyer of Brazil; and, Alexis Rather of Tupelo, Miss.
“We are very excited about the quality of the recruiting class that we have been able to sign,” said Bahnsen, whose 2002-03 team opens its spring portion of the season in February in Puerto Rico.
“These four student-athletes will obviously add depth to our program and continue to permit the program to be in the national spotlight as it has in years past.”
The Eaton twins hail from the Port Shepstone province city of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa and besides golf, both participated in hockey, swimming and tennis at the Port Shepstone High School.
Both started playing golf at the age of 12 and in December 2000, both were chosen as two of four girls to join the Ernie Els Foundation. In 2001 Melissa was selected to represent the South African Golf Foundation in the Junior Dutch International event, placing sixth.
Melissa is currently ranked 11th in the South African Ladies Order of Merit, while Nicola, 3rd in the KwaZulu Natal Ladies Amateur, is 18th in the Order of Merit.
Meyer, from Cotia, Brazil, played last year in the Spirit International event representing her country, the same tournament, then LSU golfer Meredith Duncan finished second in. Meyer is the 2001 Brazilian Ladies Amateur Champion.
Rather, from Tupelo High School, finished sixth in the Mississippi state tournament and second in the state junior amateur. She was a fixture on the Southern Junior and AJGA tours over the summer, finishing second in the SJGT Tour Championship and third in the AJGA Compaq Classic at English Turn.