KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The 10th-ranked LSU women’s golf team, coming off a good seventh place finish against one of the nation’s toughest fields last week in Nashville, goes right back to work this weekend in the annual Mercedes Benz Women’s Championship.
The 54-hole event begins on Friday and continues through Sunday. The prestigious event, hosted by the University of Tennessee, is being played this year at the Cherokee Country Club.
Joining LSU and host Tennessee in the event are: Alabama, Arkansas, James Madison, Kent State, Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina Wilmington, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, the Swedish Junior National team, Tulane, Tulsa and Virginia.
The Tigers came out of last week’s Mason Rudolph with a team score of 29-over par that nearly made the top 10 all-time for LSU women’s golf despite finishing seventh in a field that included the top three teams in the nation. The Lady Tigers won their opening event of the year, the Cougar Classic, hosted by the College of Charleston.
LSU will bring out a lineup only slightly changed from the first two events as Nicola Eaton will join her sister Melissa in the lineup, as the sophomore South African twins will play together in the LSU lineup for the sixth time as Tigers. The rest of the lineup will have junior Vicky Meyer, senior Brooke Shelton and freshman Rebecca Kuhn.
Meyer leads the team in stroke average at 72.16 through six rounds, coming off a three-over 219 performance in the Mason Rudolph. Shelton comes in averaging 73.3 strokes a round.
“We made a slight lineup change to get us a little more experience in the lineup but so far through the first two tournaments I’m very pleased,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “We were so close to having a great tournament last week, but you have to look at the field and our final score to see how well we actually did in that event. The girls are eager to get back out there and look forward to the results.”