BATON ROUGE – The staff at Golfweek magazine Friday named Austin Ernst‘s NCAA women’s golf championship victory the third best story of 2011 in women’s college golf.
Ernst used a hole-in-one and a long birdie on the second and third holes of her final round to kick start a six-under round of 66 that propelled her to a three-shot victory to become the first LSU women’s golfer to capture the individual national crown in the sport.
Of the event, the Golfweek staff wrote: “She arrived wearing a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses with lime green earpieces, and left wearing an LSU purple bandanna and carrying the individual trophy. Not a bad national championship week for Ernst, who spent the majority of the season soaking up tips from senior teammate Megan McChrystal, the player to beat for much of the year. Ernst didn’t even travel with LSU at the beginning of the 2010-11 season, but earned her first win in February at the Central District Invite before going on to win the national championship. She began the Fall 2011 season with a win at the Cougar Classic.”
The No. 1 story was UCLA’s win of the national championship in 2011 and No. 2 was also about the Bruins’ and the story of star Stephanie Kono having to reluctantly having to turn pro if she earned her LPGA card earlier this month, which she did.
The LSU women’s golf season, which finished the fall season ranked seventh in the NGCA coaches poll and 10th in the Golfstat performance rankings, opens the spring season Feb. 12 at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic and will host the annual LSU Tiger Golf Classic at the University Club in Baton Rouge, March 9-11.