ST. LOUIS, Mo. — LSU All-American golfer Megan McChrystal hopes that her 2009 appearance in the U.S. Women’s Amateur is better than her 2008 appearance.
Not that her 2008 appearance was bad as she rolled through 36 holes of qualifying and won two matches to advance to the round of 16 after her freshman season.
Now after a year in which she became the first LSU golfer in the 30 year history of the women’s program to average less than 73 strokes per round, winning two tournaments and earning first-team All-SEC honors and second-team All-America recognition by the National Golf Coaches Association, McChrystal will tee off in the first of two qualifying rounds that will hopefully get her back to match play again.
McChrystal was one of 46 players who were fully exempt from having to go through the rigors of regional and sectional qualifying to get to tee it up Monday morning. A total of 955 contestants entered that stage and the total field teeing off Monday is 156. McChrystal will be in the second group off No. 10 tee on Monday in the first of two 18-hole qualifying rounds at 7:30 a.m.
The tournament will be conducted on the Old Warson Country Club layout that will play to a par of 71 and a layout between 6,422 and 6,468 yards. The USGA, following a recent pattern in the US Opens, will have the option of playing two back-nine holes, one a par 3 and one a par 4, some 30 yards shorter.
With defending champion Amanda Blumenhurst having turned pro, the low 64 scores after Tuesday will advance to match play beginning on Wednesday. The tournament will be televised by the Golf Channel beginning with Wednesday’s match play (3-5 p.m. CDT). On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the coverage will air from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and on Sunday the finals will air from 2-4 p.m.
McChrystal, who will enter her junior season, is trying to become the second LSU women’s golfer to hoist the prestigious Cox Cup. The oldest trophy given in a USGA championship was won in 2001 by Shreveport’s Meredith Duncan prior to her senior season. Duncan, in a nationally-televised final, birdied the first hole of sudden-death, to win the 36-hole championship round.
Live scoring for the event is available at www.uswamateur.org.