BATON ROUGE — Three SEC teams and the defending champions were the best at battling a little bit of the elements Friday in the first round of the LSU/Cleveland Golf Women’s Classic at the University Club.
On a gray, overcast day with winds gusting throughout the round, the SEC teams may have made a bit of a statement looking ahead to the conference championship tournament scheduled for the same venue in mid-April.
Alabama posted the best score of the day with an 11-over par 299 led by the even par round of Megan George, while LSU’s Lady Tigers, behind the even par play of freshman Melissa Eaton, is just two shots back at 301. Defending champion North Carolina Wilmington, wanting to show it plans to be a factor in this year’s tournament, is in third at 304 and one more shot back is another SEC foe South Carolina.
North Carolina at 306 rounds out the top five and Tulane, playing the opening round with only four scoring players available, posted a nice 308 total for sixth. The Wave was missing a team counting member because of a conflict with an international tournament, but the team is expected to be at full strength for the weekend rounds of the 54-hole event that runs through Sunday.
“I was first of all very excited we were able to get the round in with the potential weather problems we could have had,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen on the first day which was changed to a shotgun start which put many of the players on course some two hours ahead of when they would have played. “We were able to dodge the rain and all of the players were dealing with the same wind problems. I thought the scores were good considering the circumstances. We were very close to making a lot of putts and we’re very happy with our position in the tournament at this moment. It’s going to be quite a weekend with what we hope will be continuing improving forecasts.”
Defending individual champion Amelie Farrah of UNC Wilmington started where she left off a year ago with a one-under 71, the only under par round of the event. The junior from Quebec had it to two under at one point in the round. Tied for second were Melissa Eaton, George and Adrienne Gautreaux, who also had it to two under par at one point in the round. Ashley Prange of North Carolina rounded out the top five at one-over 71.
The average score for the day for the 93-player field was just over 80 and Gautreaux and Farrah, who played the par 5s in four under par, led the field with five birdies each. Alabama’s George was one under on the par four holes as Tiffany Catagyguitu of South Carolina and Erin Faulkner of Kentucky were the only two players to record eagles on the afternoon.
LSU’s Brooke Shelton is in a group tied for sixth at 74, while freshman Alexis Rather is 13th at four-over 76.
The teams resume play on Saturday morning with tee times off both the first and 10th tees at 8:30 a.m. The leading waver of Alabama, LSU and North Carolina Wilmington will begin teeing off at 10 a.m. Admission is free and live scoring for the event can be viewed at www. Golfstat.com.
To view the entire results from round one, click here.