SUNRIVER, Ore. The sixth-ranked LSU women’s golf team goes for a third consecutive top 10 finish when it begins play here Wednesday in the 2000 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships at the Crosswater Golf Club.
The Championship returns to the West Coast since the 1996 tournament in Palm Springs and this year’s event comes to mountain resort area featured last fall in a “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf” match between John Daly and Fred Couples.
LSU, advancing to the championships for a school record three consecutive years, will be trying to duplicate the efforts of the 1998 team which finished fifth in Wisconsin and the 1999 team, which took home 10th in the rain-shortened tournament in Tulsa.
“This has been our goal all year to get back here,” said LSU coach Karen Bahnsen, taking a team to the championships for the four time since 1996 and the fifth time overall in her 16 years. “This is a solid team which has had to overcome some problems in the fall with injuries, but has developed a real character and drive in the spring.”
The Lady Tigers are part of the largest field in tournament history, 24 teams, with 11 qualifying from the East Regional and 13 more coming from the West regional. It’s a who’s who of college golf, but LSU feels they belong right with the best.
“We have proven we can play with many of these top teams, especially those from the East,” said Bahnsen. “We haven’t seen a lot of the teams from the West, but we’ve shown we can hold our own in this event the last two years.”
One thing that will be important for LSU is to get off to a good start. The last two tournaments, the SEC and the East Regionals, the Tigers have found themselves down in the standings only to rally big in the second and third round. An added factor will be stamina as this will be the only time this year, the women will compete over 72 holes.
LSU will go with the lineup that has brought them this far in the spring: Shreveport sophomore Meredith Duncan; New Zealand sophomore Tina Howard; Kenner senior Lisette Lee; South Bend junior Katy Wilkinson and Gretna sophomore Lindy Hitdlebaugh.
Duncan and Lee earned first-team all-SEC honors and Lee will become the first LSU player to tee it up in the NCAAs in three different team competitions.
Play will not begin each day on the par-72 Crosswater course until 11 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. PDT) because of concern of frost on the course and with LSU in the last five groups on opening day, it is not expected that LSU will complete its round until close to 10 p.m. CDT (8 p.m. PDT).
The 72-hole event runs through Saturday. Portions of the second and third round of the event will be televised on ESPN2 between 2 and 4 p.m. CDT. The final round on Saturday will be tape delayed for presentation on Sunday.