BRADENTON, Fla. – There are still lots of numbers to be crunched after the first round of the 2015 NCAA Women’s Golf Championship here Friday at “The Concession” but a lot of questions remain to be answered after a starting delay and then two lightning delays for the afternoon waves, the 12 teams seeded lowest in the Golfstat rankings.
The sixth-ranked Lady Tigers of LSU played with the wave of top 12 ranked teams from Golfstat that advanced to the 24-team Championships and finished with a T7 score among those in the morning that finished at 21-over par 309 with Virginia and Texas A&M over the extremely difficult par 72, 6,468-yard layout of Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin.
As of darkness, after a 30-minute delay in tee times to start play and then two lightening delays, play was called at 7:15 p.m. ET. They will come back Saturday morning to finish the round and after a short break the second round will begin with the teams that played started late Friday, playing early on Saturday. LSU is not scheduled to go until Noon at earliest on Saturday and that is expected to be pushed back.
With all teams and their present scores, LSU is in tie for 16, 1 shot out of the top 15 teams which the field is expected to be cut to after 54 holes Sunday night.
The best news for the Lady Tigers on the opening day was the play of sophomore Caroline Nistrup, who battled a somewhat struggle off the tee to post even par 72. She was T5 among those that finished in the morning session and when darkness hit was T8.
Nistrup had three of LSU’s four birdies in the 35-37 round recovering from an opening bogey five with a birdie on the par 5 third and par 4 eighth holes. She showed her moxie recovering from a bogey on the par 3 14th with a birdie on the par 4 No. 15 that at one point gave her a tie for the individual lead.
“It’s a tough golf course. You have to hit it all the right places,” said Nistrup, who hails from Denmark, said after she had signed her scorecard. “I wasn’t too sharp from the tee and I wasn’t too sharp from the fairway either, but I just happened to miss it in the right places. I had some easy up and downs and my putter was working well (Friday) so that helped me out a lot.”
Of her birdie on 15 that put her back in red numbers at that point she said: “Well, I hit a good drive – at least it hit the fairway. I had a really good distance and I had a pretty easy up and down so that was good to come back from that bogey.”
Nistrup finished with a bogey on the 18th after hitting in the water off the tee box, but finished with a good five to sign for 72.
Coach Karen Bahnsen had high praise for Nistrup: “She was tremendous today because she didn’t have her ball striking (Friday). But she putted very well.”
Of the round and the course, Bahnsen said, “We didn’t have our best ball-striking day (Friday) and when you don’t strike the ball well on a tough golf course, it’s hard to score. We feel like we can work out a couple of kinks and we’ll be fine. There is so much golf to play. By no means do we feel it’s over. There are going to be a lot of tough scores out there. We can’t worry about that. We are sure we can work a couple of things out and be fine.
“You have to play with confidence out there and have a commitment to every shot. You can’t fall asleep out there at all. It’s a great golf course for a championship.”
LSU counted a 76 from No. 2 player in the nation Madelene Sagstrom. The senior had four bogeys on the round, while the Lady Tigers counted an eight-over 80 from Nadine Dreher and a 9-over 81 from Carly Ray Goldstein. Elise Bradley posted 82.
“Madelene didn’t strike the ball well at all in the round,” said Bahnsen. “She struggled a bit in the practice round. When you hit your driver a bit right on this golf course it’s penal. But I feel very confident; I really do, that we are going to be fine. Just look at what our guys did at their regional.”
Live scoring for the resumption of the first round and the play of the second round can be found at golfstatresults.com and NCAAsports.com. Follow updates on the round from “The Concession” course at www.Facebook.com/LSUwomensgolf and on Twitter @LSUwomensgolf.
NCAA Women’s Golf Medal Play Championship
Concession Golf Club – Bradenton, Fla.
First Round Team Results (suspended by darkness) (Par 288)
Finished Team are listed with score and relation to par; Teams still playing are listed by relation to par and position on golf course as play was suspended.
1. Stanford +3 (11-14)
2. Duke 293 +5 F
3. Baylor +7 (11-14)
4. Southern California 297 +9 F
5. Arizona 300 +12 F
T6. Northwestern +13 (11-14), Washington 301 +13 F, Tennessee 301 +13 F, Alabama +13 (15-18)
T10. NC State +14 (10-13), Campbell +14 (10-13), Purdue +14 (15-18)
13. UNLV +17 (16-18)
14. UC Davis +19 (16-18)
15. South Carolina 308 +20 F
T16. California +21 (10-13), Virginia 309 +21 F; LSU 309 +21; Texas A&M 309 +21
T20. Wake Forest 310 +22 F; Tulane +22 (16-18), Arkansas 310 +22 F
23. Texas Tech +26 (15-18)
24. UCLA 319 +31 F
Individual Top 10 (Par 72)
1. Mariah Stackhouse, Stanford -4 (12)
2. Emma Talley, Alabama -3 (15)
T3. Gaby Lopez, Arkansas, 70 -2 F; Katelyn Dambaugh, South Carolina 70 -2 F; Annie Park, Southern California 70 -2 F
T6. Leona Maguire, Duke, 71 -1 F; Laura Lonardi -1 (12).
T8. Caroline Nistrup, LSU 72 E F; Lindsey Weaver, Arizona, 72 E F; Marissa Doss, Wake Forest, 72 E; Shannon Aubert E (13); Sychaya Tangkamolprasert, Northwestern E (12).
LSU Scores
T8. Caroline Nistrup 72 E
T49. Madelene Sagstrom 76 +4
T96. Nadine Dreher 80 +8
T105. Carly Ray Goldstein 81 +9
T111. Elise Bradley 82 +10