BATON ROUGE – Ranked No. 1 in the nation in the performance charts for the first time since October of 1997, the LSU women’s golf team tries to keep momentum rolling on its side when it takes part beginning Friday in the Lady Tar Heel Invitational at the Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The three-day tournament begins at 8 a.m. CDT Friday morning and runs through Sunday with a 17-team field that along with LSU and host North Carolina includes Alabama, Auburn, Denver, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest.
The LSU women were last ranked No. 1 on Oct. 13, 1997, in the then GolfWeek/Taylor Made performance rankings.
This year, LSU is presently on top of both the Golfstat performance rankings and the GolfWeek/Sagarin ratings. LSU is fourth in the latest National Golf Coaches Association/Golf World Coaches Poll and first in this week’s Fab 5 poll of Golf Digest college blogger Ryan Herrington.
“We just want to continue to play steady golf like we have in the first two tournaments,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “If we make a mistake, move on and go to the next hole and don’t dwell on it. We’ve gotten great scores from top to bottom in both events and the girls are confident that they can just play their games and not worry about the things they can’t control.”
LSU will make one change in the lineup in the No. 5 position as freshman Austin Ernst of Seneca, S.C. will make her first collegiate start. Megan McChrystal, with a win and another top 10 in her two starts this year and the early No. 1ranking in the GolfWeek/Sagarin individual performance chart, leading the way for the Tigers with sophomore Mary Michael Maggio playing second followed by juniors Jacqueline Hedwall and Tessa Teachman.
Maggio is ranked 16th in the country, Teachman 19th and Hedwall 44th after two events.
LSU is making its first appearance in this event since playing in the 2005 and 2006 renewals.
Live scoring for the event can be found at LSUsports.net through Golfstat.com.