BATON ROUGE — LSU women’s golf coach Karen Bahnsen declared her LSU women’s golf team ready to go after a second practice round Monday over the Scarlet Course at The Ohio State Golf Course in preparation for the start Tuesday of the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships.
The 72-hole competition begins for the 24 teams at 7 a.m. CST Tuesday with the first wave of teams. LSU will be in the final wave off the first tee at 12:20 p.m. CST. There is no television for this year’s championship event but live scoring of the championships will be available throughout at www.golfstat.com
For the Lady Tigers, this will mark their return to the championships for the first time since the 2001 season. LSU advanced through to the event from the East Regional, where the Lady Tigers posted the second lowest 54-hole score in school history, a six-over 870 to finish second to Tennessee.
The conditions on the Scarlet Course appear to be changing some from the soft, wet conditions the players faced in the Sunday practice round. The sun was out most of the day and the wind was blowing on a cool, comfortable day and by the afternoon many of the greens were drying out some and being a little less receptive to shots.
“It’s time to play and see what happens,” Bahnsen said. “This is a fabulous course with so much history and the girls are ready to give it their best shot. Again, not to be repetitive, but it is all about what we’ve talked to them so much in the last six weeks. Focus on each shot, pick a good target and don’t be afraid to make the shot. They know how to do it, they know how to play and have fun and it’s just a matter of execution.”
The course, renovated and opened on Saturday for the first time in almost two years after the work of Jack Nicklaus and his course architecture firm, more closely now resembles the work of designer Alister MacKenzie when the course opened in the 1930s. The course will play to 6,203 yards and par 72.
The course has some par 3s and par 5s that will be accessible for birdies on the course, but there are some par 4s that are long and could be the deciding factor in this year’s championship. Although the fairways are wide, the rough will be penal and there are spots off the fairway where the ball will completely disappear from view.
“This will be a great test for the championship,” said Bahnsen. “I’ve had the chance to play in a championship on this course and coach the Lady Tigers and it will be fun watching this year’s team have the chance to compete on such a historic venue.”
LSU will use the same lineup as in the SEC Championships, the Lady Buckeye (which was played on a nearby course in Dublin, Ohio) and the NCAA East Regionals — junior Melissa Eaton, sophomores Alexis Rather, Rebecca Kuhn and Kim Meck and freshman Caroline Martens. Eaton averaged 74.9 strokes per round, Martens (75.7), Rather (75.9), Kuhn (76.1) and Meck (76.5).
Kuhn did not practice Monday suffering from a virus, but that was not expected to bother her and prevent her from playing in the opening round.
LSU will be teamed in the first two rounds with the teams that finished one-two a year ago, Duke and UCLA. Duke finished at 1,170 for 72 holes and UCLA 1,175. Both teams, like LSU, finished second in their respective regionals and will be teamed together in the final wave the first day and in a morning wave on Wednesday in the second round.
Joining LSU in the field from the SEC are Georgia, Auburn (SEC Champions), Tennessee (NCAA East Regional champs), Florida, Arkansas and Alabama (winner of a sudden death playoff to advance as the eighth team from the East Regional). Auburn finished third in last year’s tournament at Sunriver, Ore.
This is LSU’s eighth appearance in the 25-years of the NCAA Division I Championships and their best finish was a fifth in 1998 at Madison, Wis. LSU has finished no worse than 12th in the six previous times Bahnsen has coached a team at the championships.
The weather is expected to be clear and in the upper 60s when the Lady Tigers tee off.