KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The scene shifts from the Pac 12 to the Southeastern Conference as the No. 3 ranked Lady Tigers take part in the second Mercedes-Benz SEC/Pac-12 Challenge beginning Friday at Holston Hills.
UCLA won the inaugural event last year at Stanford with a four-over 856, 11 shots better than Alabama of the SEC. This year’s event shifts to SEC country as Tennessee will use their normal dates for the Mercedes Benz Women’s Collegiate Championships to host this event. All 12 SEC schools and the 11 golf-playing Pac 12 schools (outside of Utah) will take part in the event.
To determine a conference challenge winner the 12 SEC team scores each day will be averaged and the 11 Pac 12 schools will be averaged to determine the conference score over the three days.
This will be the final tournament of the fall for the Lady Tigers, who have two wins in three tournaments. Their last start, the Tar Heel in Chapel Hill was most impressive rallying in the final nine holes to overtake Alabama for the victory.
LSU will go with the same lineup as in its two tournament victories with freshman Madelene Sagstrom of Sweden, sophomores Austin Ernst (Seneca, S.C.) and Lindsay Gahm (Louisville, Ky.) and seniors Tessa Teachman (Baton Rouge) and Jacqueline Hedwall (Sweden).
Sagstrom earned top five honors in the Tar Heel and Ernst and Teachman both had top 15 finishes.
“This tournament is a great idea matching a lot of the best golf teams that will be playing together no doubt next May in Nashville at the NCAA Championships,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “It would be great to close out the fall with a nice finish here. It’s been a very successful fall. The weather will be a little different than we have played in so far this year, but we just need to concentrate on our games and play through it.”
Temperatures will be in the 60s for highs but there is sunshine expected all weekend for the 54-hole event which runs through Sunday.
LSU will tee off Hole No. 10 in Friday’s opening round with Florida and Washington and Stanford of the Pac 12, beginning at 9:20 a.m. CDT. The first wave tees off at 8:30 a.m. Live scoring for the event can be found at www.LSUsports.net through Golfstat.com.
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