NORMAN, Okla. – Senior Madelene Sagstrom of LSU will attempt to defend her championship won a year ago as the Lady Tiger Golf Team looks to continue their strong start to the 2014 fall season.
The Lady Tigers tee off Saturday in the Schooner Fall Classic at the Belmar Golf Course, which will play to a par of 70 for the course measured at 6,001 yards.
Last year, LSU finished third in its first appearance in this tournament, hosted by the University of Oklahoma and country singer Toby Keith, with a 36-over score of 875. Sagstrom had rounds of 70-70-66 to finish at 4-under par 206. Then freshman Caroline Nistrup in her second tournament finished fourth at even par 210.
Joining LSU and Oklahoma in this year’s 17-team field are: Arkansas, Baylor, Clemson, Florida State, Kent State, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas State, Texas Tech, California and UCF.
While LSU was ranked 24th in the preseason poll of Golfweek, the first Golfweek/Sagarin performance rankings have LSU eighth after their very strong second in the Mason Rudolph Championships to open the season. Four LSU golfers were in the top 16 with Sagstrom sixth, Elise Bradley and Nistrup ninth and Carly Ray Goldstein 16th.
Arkansas is No. 1 in that first edition of the Golfweek performance rankings with Mississippi State 10.
“We were very pleased with how the season started and look forward to starting a very interesting part of our season when we will play two tournaments in nine days,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “We want to take each day as it comes and just continue to improve with each round we play.”
LSU’s lineup for this event will feature Sagstrom, Nistrup, Bradley and Goldstein with freshman Sydney Cavin of Baton Rouge making her collegiate debut for the Lady Tigers. Cavin prepped at The Dunham School.
The tournament runs 18 holes Saturday through Monday with live scoring at LSUsports.net through birdiefire.com. LSU will then play in the Lady Tar Heel which begins on Friday, Oct. 10, at Chapel Hill, N.C.
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