BATON ROUGE — Vanderbilt captured its first-ever women’s Southeastern Conference golf championship Sunday with a solid performance and Commodore sophomore May Wood parred the first hole of sudden death to win the individual championship.
For host LSU, it was an impressive return to near the top of the conference ladder after finishing eighth and 10th the last two years. The Tigers’ young lineup proved to be more than experienced enough to contend, finishing in a tie for second with Auburn.
Vanderbilt won the tournament with rounds of 295-291-291 for a three-day 54-hole total of 877, 13-over par over the University Club layout. The 54-hole total is the sixth lowest in SEC competition.
Auburn, looking to defend its championship, wasn’t able to keep pace on Sunday, finishing at 294 for a two-day total of 881, 17 over par. However, LSU’s 25th-ranked Lady Tigers were definitely going the other way.
After opening with a 299 on Friday, LSU moved into position with a five-over 293 on Saturday. Then on Sunday, the Lady Tigers posted their best round in three years, scoring a one-over par 289 to finish at 17-over 881, tied with Auburn. The 289 was tied for the fifth best single round in school history and the 881 ranks as the fourth lowest in the 25 years of the LSU women’s golf program.
LSU was looking for its first SEC championship since 1992, the last time the Lady Tigers hosted the tournament at the Santa Maria Country Club. However, since 1996, this marks the sixth time in 10 years that LSU has finished as tournament runner-up.
Wood’s victory came at the expense of Tennessee sophomore Violeta Retamoza, who was also the runner-up a year ago. Wood took the lead during the second round while shooting a U-Club collegiate competitive competition record of 67 and appeared to be in good shape with a two-stroke advantage when she chipped in for birdie on the 16th hole.
But on the final hole of regulation, Wood hit her ball into a bush off the fairway from where she had to take an unplayable lie. Her resulting double bogey allowed Retamoza to tie her at three-under par 213 and force the playoff at the par-4, 10th hole.
Wood had a good tee shot and a wedge to the playoff hole and while both players were on in two, Wood was in the better position on the green and two putted for par before Retamoza missed a putt that would have kept the playoff alive.
Adrienne White of Ole Miss was third at even par 216.
As in the past with the good LSU women’s golf teams, the ability to make up for a bad round and get four strong scores in was a constant in this week’s performance and LSU’s young players certainly showed no fear of what the SECs were all about. While no player finished in the top 10, four players finished in the 11-20 range as LSU proved that they belonged in the NCAA Regional women’s golf fields that will be announced in about 10 days.
Junior Brooke Shelton rallied from an opening non-counting round of 80 to shoot back-to-back one-under 71s to help LSU while the Tigers over three days counted no score higher than 76. Sophomore Vicky Meyer finished in a tie for 11th place at five-over 221 (75-72-74), while Shelton’s 222 was good enough fro a group at 14th place. Nicola Eaton posted LSU’s low round of the day with a two-under 70 to finish in a tie for 18th place at 223 (73-80-70) and Alexis Rather was in 20th at 224 (75-75-74).
“I can’t tell you how happy at am for this guys,” said an elated Karen Bahnsen. “You just had a feeling this was going to be right for them this weekend. They never gave up. Never showed any intimidation. We wanted to post a score and did we ever and see what would happen. This lineup has really learned to grind it out and support each other and that was playing like a true team this weekend, supporting each other, helping each other out and so much more.”
LSU and the other top Southeastern Conference golf teams will be invited to one of three regionals at Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., Bloomington, Ill., or Stanford, Calif., scheduled for May 6-8.
Final Results
1 Vanderbilt +13 F +3 295 291 291 877
T2 Auburn +17 F +6 292 295 294 881
T2 Louisiana State +17 F +1 299 293 289 881
4 Tennessee, U. of +18 F +6 296 292 294 882
5 Florida +21 F +5 302 290 293 885
6 Georgia +26 F +7 298 297 295 890
7 South Carolina +35 F +8 303 300 296 899
8 Mississippi, U. of +41 F +7 315 295 295 905
9 Arkansas, U. of +45 F +16 297 308 304 909
10 Alabama, U. of +49 F +19 306 300 307 913
11 Mississippi St. U. +59 F +20 306 309 308 923
12 Kentucky, U. of +65 F +17 315 309 305 929