ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The 18th-ranked LSU Lady Tigers golf team completed its practice on Monday for the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship in preparation for the opening round of play here Tuesday at the University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course.
The Lady Tigers went through the course on Sunday and then played selected holes on Monday and will tee off at 10 a.m. CDT off the 10th hole on the par 72, 6,400-yard course that was the home for the 1987 NCAA Women’s Championship and the 1976, 1992 and 1998 NCAA Men’s Championship.
LSU advanced to the championships as the final qualifier in the Central Region in Austin, Texas, after winning a playoff over Florida State on the first hole of sudden death when senior Alexis Rather chipped in for birdie from the fringe off the green.
“I was the only one that missed the green,” Rather said in remembering the situation. “It was a good shot; it just went a little right. I was pin high and about five paces off the green. I honestly considered putting it, but there was poanna grass in the way, so I had to get over it. I chipped it and it landed right where I wanted it to and rolled in.”
LSU is one of 24 teams taking part in the four-day tournament that is expected to open under perfect, but hot, weather conditions.
LSU will play in the morning wave with Furman and UC-Davis, the final qualifiers from their respective regions. Twelve teams play in the morning wave and another 12 in the afternoon and then the tee times are flipped for the second round so that each team plays in the morning and in the afternoon.
Among the favorites are three-time defending champion Duke, but the SEC is well represented with SEC and NCAA East champion Florida as one of the number one seeds. UCLA, the number two team in the nation, won the Central Regional and Southern Cal won the West. Also from the SEC besides LSU and Florida in the field are Georgia, Auburn, South Carolina, Alabama and Arkansas.
Coach Karen Bahnsen is pleased with her team’s preparation and fields they can play this golf course known primarily for its long and wide fairways that have lots of hills. The rough is cut about three inches and past the rough is loose desert sand, water or sagebrush. To finish it off, the greens here average a healthy 6,500 square feet.
“This is a very straightforward golf course,” said Bahnsen. “It’s all out there in front of you. But it is really a great golf course and a good test. The key will be proper club selection into these large greens to get the ball into the proper part of the green so you won’t have a long, long putt. It may come down to a putting contest. The girls are ready and I feel good about how we will represent LSU in this event. It is wonderful to be back here again.”
LSU is back in the tournament for the first time since 2006 where they finished 23rd while the team battled a 24-hour virus that spread throughout the team. This is LSU’s ninth NCAA Championship appearance since 1982 (1982, 1986, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2008) with LSU posting five top 10 finishes. The Lady Tigers best tournament came in 1998 when LSU finished fifth at Madison, Wisc.
Joining senior Rather for LSU is the lineup that has played most of the spring with freshman Megan McChrystal and Amalie Valle, with junior Caroline Martens and senior Rebecca Kuhn. McChrystal is averaging 74.4 strokes per round, the best average for an LSU golfer since 2002. Kuhn is having her best seasons as a Lady Tiger averaging 75.4 strokes per round and Valle is right behind at 75.6.
Live scoring for the championships can be found on LSUsports.net through www.golfstat.com. The tournament runs through Friday and is the only 72-event that the women collegiate golfers take part in. Live highlights will be available each night on GolfweekTV.com and live streaming coverage of the later rounds will be available on NCAA.com.