BARRINGTON, R.I. – Austin Ernst, who won the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship for LSU in May, returns to competitive golf Monday when she tees off in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Rhode Island Country Club.
Ernst received an automatic invitation to the 156-player field after the freshman won the individual championship with a final round of six-under 66 at The Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas.
This will mark the fourth time the RICC has hosted the USGA’s premier event for women’s amateurs on the par 71 Donald Ross course that will play to 6,441 yards.
The 156-players will play two stroke play rounds, one Monday and one Tuesday, to determine the 64 players that will advance to match play beginning on Wednesday that will whittle the field down to the final two who will play a 36-hole match on Sunday for the championship.
Ernst, who won two tournaments as a freshman in earning National Golf Coaches Association first-team All-America honors, helped the Lady Tigers to their best ever third place team finish in the NCAA Championships. She has spent most of the summer attending summer school at LSU and this will be her first major competitive rounds since the NCAA championship.
Ernst is scheduled to go off early at 6:22 a.m. CST, the third group off the first tee in Monday’s first qualifying round on the 10th anniversary week when Shreveport’s Meredith Duncan captured the U.S. Women’s Amateur prior to her senior year at LSU in 2001. Duncan defeated Nicole Perrot on the 37th hole when she stuffed her tee shot on the par-3 hole for a tap-in birdie to win the match, 1 up.
Match play begins on Wednesday and the Golf Channel will have two hours of coverage through Sunday at 2-4 p.m. CDT.