BATON ROUGE — Defending champion Auburn took the lead from Tennessee in the latter stages of the first round of play and left the course with a three-shot advantage after the first round of the 24th annual Southeastern Conference Women’s Golf Championships Friday at the University Club in Baton Rouge.
Auburn posted a first-round score of four-over par 292, three shots better than Vanderbilt at seven-over par. The field is tightly bunched with Tennessee in third at 296, Arkansas at 297, Georgia 298 and host LSU in sixth at 299.
In all, 10 shots cover the top seven teams.
Violeta Retamoza of Tennessee, last year’s contender in the early rounds as a freshman who eventually would finish as the runner up, opened strongly again with a three-under par 69 as one of the two under par scores on the afternoon. It is the 28th time in the SEC Tournament history that someone has shot 69 or better and it ties for the fourth best opening round in women’s SEC event history.
Amanda McCurdy of Arkansas shot a one-under 71 as the only other round under par on Friday and three players — defending champion Aimee Cho of Florida and Nicole Hage and Maria Martinez of Auburn — are tied for third at even par 72.
Retamoza did her best work on the par 5s playing the four longest holes on the course in four-under par. She was tied for the lead in birdies on the day with six.
The LSU round proved what Coach Karen Bahnsen was hoping for when she stacked a youthful lineup that included a sophomore and three freshmen in their first SEC test and they responded. When junior Brooke Shelton, who had three top 10 finishes in the spring (including a third in the earlier LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic), struggled to an 80, it was the youngsters who answered the challenge.
It may have been one of the South African twins, Nicola Eaton, who answered the charge the most as she responded with an eagle on the par-5 third hole, one of two on the day in the tournament, as part of one-over round of 73 in just her 10th round of collegiate play to put herself in sixth position after the first day.
Sophomore Vicky Meyer of Brazil posted a three-over 75, as did Tupelo, Miss., freshman Alexis Rather, who Nicola’s sister, Melissa, put a first round 76 on the board to put the Tigers with four players in the top 27 of the individual competition.
“We were very close to a spectacular round,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen, the host of the event for the first time since 1992, the last time LSU won the SEC women’s championship. “The young players stepped right up and competed hard. They all know what good competition and important tournaments are all about from their junior play and they certainly showed that in the first round.”
LSU will play the morning wave again on Saturday, but this time will tee off at 8:30 a.m. beginning on the first tee playing with Georgia and Arkansas. Following them off the first tee at 9:20 a.m. will be the leading threesome of Auburn, Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Auburn is going for back-to-back championships for the first time since Georgia won three straight SEC Women’s Tournaments in the mid-1990s.
Admission is free to the U-Club for the 54-hole event which runs through Sunday and live scoring of the event can be found at www.LSUsports.net or www.golfstat.com.
Rank Team Scoring Holes total To par Today Total 1 Auburn +4 F +4 292 292 2 Vanderbilt +7 F +7 295 295 3 Tennessee +8 F +8 296 296 4 Arkansas +9 F +9 297 297 5 Georgia +10 F +10 298 298 6 LSU +11 F +11 299 299 7 Florida +14 F +14 302 302 8 South Carolina +15 F +15 303 303 T9 Alabama +18 F +18 306 306 T9 Mississippi St. +18 F +18 306 306 T11 Kentucky +27 F +27 315 315 T11 Mississippi +27 F +27 315 315 Position Player Team Score Hole Total Score Today Overall 1-Violeta Retamoza Tennessee, U. of -3 F-3 69 69 2-Amanda McCurdy Arkansas, U. of -1 F-1 71 71 T3 -Aimee Cho Florida EFE72 72 T3 -Nicole Hage Auburn EFE72 72 T3 -Maria Martinez Auburn EFE72 72 T6 -Nicola Eaton (10) Louisiana State +1 F+1 73 73 T6 -Beth Irwin (10) Mississippi St. U. +1 F+1 73 73 T6 -Marci Robinson South Carolina +1 F+1 73 73 T6 -Jessica Shepley Tennessee, U. of +1 F+1 73 73 T6 -May Wood Vanderbilt +1 F+1 73 73