SORRENTO, Fla. — The 25th-ranked LSU women’s golf team will begin an eight-day stretch that features two 54-hole tournaments Sunday when they begin play in the UCF Challenge to benefit Florida Children’s Hospital.
The Lady Tigers are coming into the event off a very strong second place finish in a field of 18 in the Lady Puerto Rico Classic last month and this week will test the mettle of this Lady Tiger team playing in this tournament through Tuesday before coming home to host the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic Friday through Sunday.
LSU, seventh in last year’s event, will be joined at the Red Tail Golf Club by host UCF and a strong field that includes (with ranking): Alabama (14), Arkansas (8), Auburn (10), Duke (1), Florida (5), Florida State (36), Furman (37), Georgia (12), New Mexico (22), Oklahoma State (7), Pepperdine (18), Purdue (11), Tennessee (15), UCLA (2), USC (4) and Vanderbilt (23).
“It’s a top notch field,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “We played very well in Puerto Rico and we will need to keep that intensity throughout this event to stay with this field. This will be a very good test for us, although it will be a difficult week as we try to transition from this event to our event at the University Club. We will have to be mentally sharp all week long to compete at the highest level.”
One of the interesting side notes in his event is that the medalist from the Challenge will receive a sponsor’s exemption into the LPGA’s Ginn Tribute Hosted by ANNIKA (May 26-June 1, 2008)
LSU will go with its lineup that it used in Puerto Rico, with freshman Megan McChrystal and Amalie Valle, junior Caroline Martens and seniors Alexis Rather and Rebecca Kuhn.
Live scoring for the event can be found at golfstat.com. LSU will tee off Sunday in the third wave off the back nine beginning at 8:30 a.m. CDT.