ATHENS, Ga. — LSU senior Melissa Eaton fired a solid round of one-under par 70 and when the day ended was the only player under par and the first-round leader of the Liz Murphey Collegiate Friday at the University of Georgia Golf Course.
Eaton’s 70 came on the newly renovated course that had its par reduced from 73 to 71 in a $2 million project but the women’s tees lengthened some 75 yards. But the venerable course still has plenty of teeth as only two other players had even par 71.
Eaton keyed a day for the LSU women’s golf team in which they held second place for most of the first round, before a few bogeys in the final four holes would drop them back into fourth place after a round of 17-over par 301. Auburn is the leader at nine-over par 293, four shots ahead of Michigan State at 13-over 297. Florida is one shot ahead of LSU in third at 16-over 300.
Host Georgia is in a tie for seventh place at 19-over par.
“Melissa really put a nice round together and that’s what we need her to do,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “Now she just needs to keep her focus and not worry about what happened on Friday. We stumbled a touch in the final few holes or we could have been up in second after 18 holes, but I like the way we played the round and we just need to keep that up on Saturday.”
The Tigers also counted a 76 from Kim Meck and Alexis Rather and a 79 from Rebecca Kuhn. Kuhn will be looking to rebound in the final two rounds as she had been LSU’s team leader in three of the last four events and moved into the team lead in stroke average after last week’s LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic.
Trailing Eaton in the individual competition is Margaret Shirley of Auburn and Sara Brown of Michigan State at even par 71.
The second round is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. CDT and live scoring for the event can be found at www.Golfstat.com.
Liz Murphey Intercollegiate
First Round Team results (Par 71-284)
1. Auburn 293 +9; 2. Michigan State 297 +13; 3. Florida 300 +16; 4. LSU 301 +17; 5. South Carolina 302 +18; Alabama 302 +18; 7. Georgia 303 +19; 3. Virginia 303 +19; 9. Arkansas 304 +20; 9. Purdue 304 +20; 11. Wake Forest, 307 +23; 12. Florida State 312 +28; 12. Furman 312 +28; 14. Kent State 314 +30; 14. Miss. State 314 +30; 14. Augusta State 314 +30; 17. Central Florida 319 +35; 18. Georgia State 331 +47.
Individual Top 5 (Par 71)
1. Melissa Eaton, LSU, 70 -1; 2. Sara Brown, Michigan State, 71 E; 2. Margaret Shirley, Auburn, 71 E; 4. Maria Nernandez, Purdue, 72 +1; 4. Lucy Nunn, Arkansas, 72 +1; 4. Caroline Westrup, Florida State, 72 +1; 4. Leah Wigger, Virginia, 72 +1.
LSU Scores
1. Melissa Eaton 70 -1
T33. Kim Meck 76 +5
T33. Alexis Rather 76 +5
T57. Rebecca Kuhn 79 +8
T85. Caroline Martens 84 +13