NEW ORLEANS, LA – LSU junior Sydney Cavin may have looked at the weather forecast for the final round this Tuesday of the 2017 Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate women’s golf tournament and smiled.
Cavin won her first collegiate title in the 2016 event over a soggy English Turn Golf and Country Club layout as heavy rains raged all around the New Orleans area in the final round but except for one brief stoppage, the lightening stayed away long enough for Cavin to finish off her best three days of golf at LSU.
Cavin, from Baton Rouge, fired rounds of 69-73-69 for a 5-under 211, to tie for the individual crown with Michigan State Sarah Burnham.
The 2017 version begins on Sunday with 18 holes over each of three days and will be the first of two events LSU will play in the state of Louisiana. The Tigers will in March host its annual LSU Tiger Golf Classic at the Baton Rouge University Club.
The tournament has a strong field as LSU and host Tulane will be joined by No. 1 Stanford along with six other top 25 teams – No. 3 Florida, No. 11 Miami, No. 19 UCF, No. 20 Oklahoma State, No. 21 Texas and No. 23 Arizona. Also in the field is defending national champion Washington, Oregon, Clemson, Denver, Virginia, Mississippi State, Houston and UTSA.
In 2015 LSU won the event with a score of 874 for 54 holes as Madelene Sagstrom and Caroline Nistrup tied for the title at 4-under 212. So with Nistrup in her senior season after missing the chance to defend last year because of her wrist injury, the Lady Tigers will have technically two defending champions in the field.
The Lady Tigers will go with their top three from the first tournament that ended this past Tuesday – senior Nistrup, sophomore Kathleen Gallagher and junior Cavin. Nistrup and Gallagher had the best 54-hole total in Puerto Rico at +9, 225 with Cavin at 230.
Senior Lana Hodge will make her spring debut as will freshman Monica Dibildox to complete the team lineup and Claudia De Antonio will compete in the individual competition.
The tournament will begin with tee times on Sunday and Monday at 9 a.m. each day and 8 a.m. on Tuesday. Admission is free. Host Tulane will go off the first tee beginning at 9 a.m. and LSU will be off hole No. 10 beginning in the final wave at 10:30 a.m.
Follow updates during the round on live scoring at Golfstat.com and @LSUwomensgolf on Twitter. Full recap will be available at www.Facebook.com/LSUwomensgolf.