BATON ROUGE — The women’s college golf season makes its first of two stops at LSU’s University Club when a field of 17 teams tees off in the 23rd LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic.
This will be the fifth time the teams have played at the 6,200-yard, par 72 U-Club, but it will be the first time the women have played this early in the year at the course. The old LSU/Fairwood Invitational had a mid-March date for many years and the women and men switched spring tournament dates to allow time between this event and the LSU-hosted Southeastern Conference women’s championship tournament in April on this same layout.
The weather for the men’s tournaments has been iffy at best in past years, but the recent run of warm weather has made coaches and players hopeful to get all 54 holes in, although the Thursday college-am was played under a dark, overcast cloud cover most of the day.
LSU, looking to win its home event for the first time since 2001, is coming off a very successful triumph in the Central District Regional in Parrish, Fla., this past month. LSU went wire-to-wire and stroke-for-stroke with host Michigan State to score the team’s first win since the 2001 Cleveland Classic, putting the 26th-ranked Lady Tigers in position for a return back to post-season play after a year away.
The Lady Tigers will go with a mix of veterans and youth in the lineup with freshman twins Melissa Eaton (1) and Nicola Eaton (5) playing the top and bottom positions for LSU. Junior Brooke Shelton will play the second spot with senior Isabel Dornellas and freshman Alexis Rather rounding out the lineup. Sophomore Vicky Meyer and senior Devon Day will play as individual entrants representing LSU.
Joining LSU in the field are Alabama, Alabama-Birmingham, Augusta State, Birmingham Southern, Furman, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, UNC Wilmington, South Carolina, Tulane and Winthrop.
Tulane was the winner over LSU in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic in the spring opener for the Lady Tigers and UNC Wilmington is the tournament’s defending champion. Wilmington won by three shots over Tulane a year ago with a 54-hole total of 25-over par 889. Memphis was third and LSU was fourth. Amelie Farrah of UNC Wilmington won the individual title with a 54-hole total of 217, one over par. The junior from Quebec City, Canada, is back to defend her title.
“This is a tremendous field for this year’s tournament and we look forward to a weekend of outstanding golf,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen, in her 20th year as the head coach at LSU. “We feel very good about what our team has done this year and we look forward to being able to compete again on our home course. The girls are ready and with the weather, if the rain holds off, this should be a great weekend to watch some exciting golf.”
The tournament is scheduled for 54 holes with 18 holes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Tournament officials, in an effort to get the first round in has elected to go with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start on Friday with all players on the course beginning their round at the same time. Admission is free and live scoring of the event is available on the Internet at www.golfstat.com.