COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the LSU women’s golf team, they come to the one golf tournament where winning isn’t necessarily the most important thing.
When the NCAA East Regional golf tournament begins Thursday on the prestigious Scarlet Course on the Ohio State University campus, the Tigers and 23 other teams will be looking not so much at the number in first place, but the number in 11th position.
That will be the cutoff for the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships set to take place in two weeks in Sunriver, Oreg. If the LSU team can finish in the top 11 in the regional, it will go to the championships for an unprecedented third straight year at LSU.
LSU, ranked fifth in the MasterCard Collegiate Poll, enters as the number one seed from the South District. Also in from the South in seed order with national ranking in parenthesis: Georgia (8), Auburn (13), South Carolina (20), Mississippi State (28), Furman (37), Central Florida (42), South Florida (36), Florida (39), Tulane (first time in 38); and, Arkansas (44).
From the Mid-Atlantic East will be second-ranked Duke, Wake Forest (12), Tennessee (18), North Carolina (29) and unranked Campbell, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Penn State. Rounding out the field from the Midwest District will be Purdue (19), Ohio State (30), Michigan State, Indiana and Northwestern (32).
LSU posted a 56-15 record against the East Regional schools.
“We feel very confident about our chances to do well here,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “It’s been a very hectic week or so with trying to find time to practice while making sure the girls got through their final exams. But it is something that you have to understand and budget your time and handle and they have done a good job of that.”
The Scarlet Course at Ohio State is a par 72 layout which has seen a dozen NCAA men’s and women’s championships played on it. The LSU team was here in October to play the course in the Lady Buckeye Fall Invitational, finishing fourth. In the Tigers’ last start last month at the SEC Women’s Golf Championship, LSU came out very much out of character, firing a 321 first round leaving the Tigers in ninth place.
But LSU battled back and shot 302 and a tournament best 298 to rally to a second place finish just two shots short of Auburn in the event played at the Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Ark.
“It’s not an easy field and this can be a very difficult course,” said Bahnsen. “We can’t just walk out and expect to advance. We can’t afford to have a start like we did in the SEC Tournament. But I think the girls learned something from that experience that they will carry into this event.”
LSU will go with its normal lineup of senior Lisette Lee of Kenner, Meredith Duncan of Shreveport, New Zealand sophomore Tina Howard, junior Katy Wilkinson of South Bend, Ind., and, sophomore Lindy Hitdlebaugh of Gretna. Lee and Duncan earned first-team All-SEC honors and Duncan has been in the top 10 in all five spring tournaments. Howard has returned to form after missing the fall with tendon surgery.
The 54-hole event runs through Saturday.