BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s golf team opens its 2005 fall season as it attempts to defend its title at the College of Charleston Cougar Classic beginning on Sunday.
The teams were scheduled to play two rounds Monday and the final round Tuesday, but because of the off-shore presence of Hurricane Ophelia, the tournament will now begin on Sunday and finish on Monday, weather permitting. Live scoring for the event can be found at www.golfstat.com.
Coach Karen Bahnsen enters her 22nd year as the head coach of the LSU women’s golf team and she has a veteran squad of players back. The only loss, however, was an important one as Brooke Shelton graduated after finishing eighth in the NCAA Division I Women’s Championships last May.
But she has been very impressed with the scores that came out of the qualifying rounds for this first tournament.
“We actually played extremely well in qualifying,” Bahnsen said prior to her team’s departure on Saturday for the first of four fall tournaments. “So I’m really excited about how the girls are playing right now. It was tough to make this five for this trip. It was very competitive.”
LSU’s opening lineup will feature sophomores Rebecca Kuhn, Kim Meck and Alexis Rather and junior twins Nicola and Melissa Eaton. Kuhn shot even par over 72 holes of qualifying on the school’s home course, the University Club.
Melissa Eaton earned All-SEC first team honors a year ago and averaged 75.00 for 27 rounds with four top 10 finishes. Kuhn averaged 75.70 for 30 rounds, while Meck posted a 76.78 average for 30 rounds. Nicola Eaton played in three tournaments a year ago, while Rather redshirted.
Rather, however, had a tremendous summer playing in several important amateur tournaments, including a semifinal finish in the prestigious Women’s Southern Amateur.
LSU won last year’s tournament with a nine-over par score of 873, topping Tennessee by three shots. LSU opened with an even par round of 288 and followed it with rounds of 295 and 290 to get the win.
“Obviously, it is a golf course we have some confidence on,” said Bahnsen. “Two of the girls didn’t compete on the course a year ago. I’m looking forward to seeing how we go back there and compete. The field this year is extremely strong.”
Joining LSU and host College of Charleston on the Yeamans Hall Golf Club (par 72) in Harahan, S. C., will be Auburn, Campbell, Florida State, Furman, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Miami, Mississippi, North Carolina, N. C. State, Richmond, South Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest.
LSU will also be in action in the fall Oct 7-9 at the Lady Tar Heel on the North Carolina campus, while traveling to Destin, Fla., for the SEC/ACC Challenge hosted by Florida State Oct. 28-30. The fall season concludes Nov. 4-6 against another strong field in the Auburn-Derby Invitational at Opelika, Ala.
LSU will host its annual tournament for the 25th consecutive year March 3-5 with the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic at the University Club. It will mark the seventh consecutive year the event has been contested at LSU’s home course that earlier this summer was rated the 13th-best college home course in the country by Golf Digest.
The LSU women’s golf team, like the other athletic teams on the LSU campus, has joined in the efforts to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
“They came to me wanting to help and asking what could we do,” said Bahnsen. “They went to the field house (the special needs shelter on campus), volunteered and did whatever they could and they all want to continue that when we get back from this trip.”