BATON ROUGE — Some of the nation’s top women’s golf teams come to the local University Club this week for the annual Southeastern Conference women’s golf championships.
The 12 conference teams will arrive in town on Wednesday and take part in practice rounds on Thursday at the U-Club before the 54-hole event begins at 8:30 a.m. on Friday with single 18-hole rounds running through Sunday to determine the conference champion and the automatic invite to one of the three NCAA Division I women’s golf regionals in May, although many of the SEC teams are expecting to be invited as well based on their season results.
Coach Karen Bahnsen and the University Club staff will have the par-72 course playing at its longest for any of the women’s college tournaments that have been played on the layout, including the 2002 NCAA East Regional. A few holes on the final nine holes have been lengthened putting the scorecard at over 6,300 yards for this year’s Championship event.
All 12 teams are ranked in the top 78 in the GolfWeek/Sagarin Performance rankings with eight teams in the top 30 with Georgia at No. 5, Vanderbilt 7, Auburn 10, Florida 13, Tennessee 21, LSU 25, South Carolina 28 and Arkansas 29. Vanderbilt, Auburn and Georgia are ranked in the top 10 in both the NGCA Coaches Poll and the Golf World women’s college poll, as well.
Aimee Cho is the top SEC player in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Rankings at No. 8. She comes into the league championships with a stroke average of 74.04 and the sophomore, who is also the defending champion with a winning score of even par 216 at the University Club of Kentucky in 2003, has five top 10 finishes this season. Also in the Sagarin top 10 at No. 9 is Auburn freshman Nicole Hage who also has five top 10s this year and a stroke average of 73.50.
In all, 19 players are ranked in the top 100 of the present Sagarin rankings.
Auburn is the defending tournament champion, having rallied from six shots down in the final round to win by two strokes over Florida, 903-905. It was the second time in four years that Auburn had won the title by just two shots, the other in 2000 when Auburn held off LSU, 919-921.
The tournament makes its first appearance since 1992 in Baton Rouge and that was the year the Lady Tigers captured their SEC championship in a tournament played at Santa Maria.
Speaking of the Tigers, the Lady Tiger team has got itself back in the Top 25 performance rankings thanks to much steadier play and a strong spring from junior Brooke Shelton. Shelton had four top 10 finishes to lead LSU in stroke average at 75.73, capped by a tie for third in the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic, also played at the local University Club.
LSU’s expected lineup is expected to be topped by Shelton, along with sophomore Vicky Meyer and freshmen Alexis Rather and twins Melissa and Nicola Eaton.
“We are looking forward to hosting this year’s SEC Championships,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “This has always been such an exciting event and other than last year, we have certainly been a factor in the event the last several years. We have had a few good weeks of practice to get ready for this event and our girls have worked hard to be ready for this event. The course is in excellent shape and we look forward to showcasing some of the top women’s golfers in the country this coming weekend.”
LSU has had five second place finishes in the event since 1996.
Tee Times are scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. each day Friday through Sunday off both the first and 10th tees. LSU will go off in the first grouping off the tenth tee based on its 10th place finish of a year ago. Admission to the University Club is free.