BATON ROUGE — In what is becoming an annual March event for the 11th-ranked LSU women’s golf team, the Lady Tigers will tee off Sunday for the first of two tournaments and six rounds in eight days.
Fans are reminded to set their clocks forward an hour tonight, as Daylight Saving Time begins at 2 a.m. in the United States.
The event starting Sunday is the UCF Challenge in Sorrento, Fla., that will play through Tuesday and then it is back to Baton Rouge for LSU’s golf only home event ? the 28th annual LSU Golf Classic, being played for the 10th time at the LSU University Club.
The Challenge played at the 6,301 yard RedTail Golf Club, featured 13 of the Top 20 teams in the nation and 29 of the top 50 individuals.
The field besides 11th-ranked LSU and host UCF, ranked 42nd includes the top three teams in the nation ? Arizona State, UCLA and USC — along with Alabama (5), Arizona (20), Auburn (8), Duke (9), Florida (28), Florida State (57), North Carolina (15), Oklahoma State (6), Pepperdine (12), Purdue (13), Tennessee (37), Texas (34) and Vanderbilt (14).
LSU is coming off a second place finish in its opening spring tournament, the Central District Invitational last month, and sophomore Megan McChrystal became the first LSU women’s golfer to win an individual title in seven years as she shot 68 on the final day to rally to win the title. McChrystal leads LSU into this important week of the season and she has jumped to No. 7 in the Golfweek/Sagarin ratings with her season stroke average of 71.8.
The rest of the lineup will remain the same from the Central District event ? senior Caroline Martens, sophomore Amalie Valle and freshmen Jacqueline Hedwall and Tessa Teachman.
“We are really looking forward to this week,” said LSU Hall-of-Fame Coach Karen Bahnsen. “This is a great field and a great tournament and I know our players are excited to be back out playing again. We need to get off to a good start and make sure we finish rounds. That’s very important. Then we come home for the Classic and another good field of teams.”
The UCF tournament is 18 holes Sunday through Tuesday with tee times beginning at 8 a.m. CDT. Live scoring is available on LSUsports.net through Golfstat.com