BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s golf team, less than a week from opening its fall season, is ranked 21st in the national pre-season women’s coaches poll as presented by GolfWorld magazine in its current issue.
LSU is one of eight SEC teams to be ranked in the top 25 this year in a poll topped by two-time defending national champions, Duke, which will be looking to pull off a three-peat in women’s golf for the first time since Arizona State pulled it off in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
The Lady Tigers return all five of the players from a year ago that finished second in the NCAA East Regional and 23rd in the national championships at the Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University this past May. Melissa, Eaton, a senior from South Africa, led the Tigers in stroke average last season and has averaged an even 75.0 for the last two years of play. Returning with her are NCAA Championship veterans Rebecca Kuhn, Kim Meck, Alexis Rather, all juniors, and sophomore Caroline Martens.
“It’s a good position to be in starting the year,” said Karen Bahnsen, starting her 23rd season as the head women’s golf coach, concerning the pre-season ranking. “But there is a lot of golf to be played and we are looking forward to our first two tournaments next week in a span of seven days. Again, we hope to do like last year and work toward a peak at the proper time, when we get to post-season play.”
LSU opens play for the third consecutive year at the Cougar Classic hosted by the College of Charleston next Monday and Tuesday before traveling to Nashville for the Mason Rudolph Invitational on the weekend at the Vanderbilt Legends Club. The fall schedule is highlighted by the Auburn “Derby” Classic and LSU has been invited to the 16-team Hooters Match Play Classic near Orlando, Fla., in November.
The LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic at the LSU University Club will highlight the spring portion of the season. One of the largest fields in tournament history, 21 teams, including some of the nation’s top teams will be in action during the three-day 54-hole event, including defending champion and No. 4 preseason-ranked Auburn. That event is March 16-18. LSU will also host the NCAA East Regional event, the third major post-season event for women to be held at the University Club in its short history in May 2007. The top eight teams will advance to the NCAA Championships in Orlando.
GOLFWORLD Pre-season Women’s Top 25
1. Duke (17), 449 points
2. Arizona State (1), 403 points
3. Georgia, 401 points
4. Auburn, 360 points
5. Purdue, 356 points
6. Pepperdine, 345 points
7. UCLA, 321 points
8. USC, 320 points
9. Florida, 299 points
10. Vanderbilt, 245 points
11. Wake Forest, 235 points
12. Arizona, 212 points
12. Virginia, 212 points
14. Tennessee, 204 points
15. Oklahoma State, 198 points
16. Texas A&M, 182 points
17. Stanford, 166 points
18. California, 155 points
19. UNLV, 122 points
20. Arkansas, 104 points
21. LSU, 102 points
22. New Mexico, 85 points
23. Ohio State, 82 points
24. Alabama, 58 points
25. Kent State, 47 points