BATON ROUGE — It was simply time for the LSU seniors to step up in a situation they were very familiar with.
Friday was the first round of the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic at the school’s home course, the University Club. Although this is the 21st annual event, it is only the third year the event has been held at the Tigers home course.
Both years, seniors Meredith Duncan and Lindy Hitdlebaugh played some of their best golf of the year, getting no worse than top eight finishes each year. Duncan finished second in 1999 and fourth in 2000, while Hitdlebaugh was fifth in 1999 and eighth in 2000.
So when the first round scores were posted Friday afternoon, there was Duncan and Hitdlebaugh together again at the University Club, this time as part of a three-way tie for the individual lead at 1-under par 71. They were joined in the lead by Auburn’s Celeste Troche, also at 71.
Auburn, the nation’s number one women’s golf team in both polls, posted the fifth-lowest score in tournament history, with a 2-over par score of 290 for the five-player, count four score event. The visiting Tigers have a seven-shot advantage over the LSU Tigers entering the second round of the three-day, 54-hole event. LSU’s round was nothing to sneeze at as the Tigers posted their lowest round of the season, 297.
Obviously, both Auburn Coach Kim Evans and LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen had reason to be happy.
“It was a good round, a good solid round,” said Evans, who teams has won or finished second in every event this season. “We just played consistent all day and that was the key. There was nothing flashy. Hopefully that will be a building block for (Saturday). The weather was great, you can kind of feel the heat coming in and I think (Saturday) will be a little warmer and hopefully we will get some lower scores.”
“I was pleased with our round,” said Bahnsen, whose team is trying to win the event for the third straight year and attempting to become only the second team in the 21-year history of the event to three-peat. “Lindy and Meredith really were focused in. We were real close to an even better team score and we’ll tried to get our focus gathered in from top to bottom for the next round.”
Vanderbilt is third in the event at 12-over 300 with Alabama another 2-shots back as the visiting players also begin to get a feel for the course that some of them will be playing again in early May when LSU hosts the NCAA East Regional Golf Championships.
The three leaders all had consistent rounds with no major mistakes. Troche had one of two eagles on the day (a hole in one on the eighth by Kelly McGurk of Augusta State was the other), while Duncan and Hitdlebaugh made the key putts when needed.
“It was really a relaxed round,” said Duncan, from Shreveport. “I played with two of my really good friends (Sarah Johnston of Alabama and Courtney Swaim of Auburn) and we all just relaxed and played. I made some birdie putts on the front and did not really make anything on the back. I just kept going and made pars and finished up.”
“Overall, I played well and hopefully will play a little better the rest of the weekend,” said Hitdlebaugh, from Gretna.
Bernadette Luse of Ole Miss and Kristy McPherson of South Carolina both shot even par 72 and five players, including four from Auburn, are tied for sixth at 1-over 73.
Freshman Brooke Shelton of LSU made her LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic debut a good one, rallying from a 4-over front nine of 40 with a 2-under 34 on the back nine to finish at 2-over 74, in a tie for 11th place. Sophomore Devon Day, playing as an individual only, had a 3-over 77 to tie for 26th place, while LSU’s final counting score was a 9-over 81 from sophomore Isabel Dornellas.
Tulane is in seventh after the first day with a 19-over 307, while the University of New Orleans is in 13th place at 37-over 325.
The tournament continues Saturday at 8 a.m. with the final wave of Auburn, LSU and Vanderbilt teeing off beginning at 9:30 a.m. Admission is free and live Internet scoring of the tournament is available at and www.LSUsports.net.
LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic
The University Club Baton Rouge, LA
Dates: 04/05 – 04/07 (Today:04-05-2002)
Par: 72
Yardage: 6265
Fin. School Scores
1 Auburn University 290 +2
2 Louisiana State U. 297 +9
3 Vanderbilt Univ. 300 +12
4 Alabama, U. of 302 +14
5 South Carolina, U of 303 +15
6 Mississippi, U. of 305 +17
7 Tulane University 307 +19
8 Mississippi St. U. 309 +21
9 TX A&M CorpusChristi 314 +26
10 UAB 316 +28
11 Birmingham Southern 320 +32
12 Augusta State U. 322 +34
13 New Orleans, U. of 325 +37
Fin. Name School Scores
1 Meredith Duncan LSU 34- 37 71 -1
Lindy Hitdlebaugh LSU 35- 36 71 -1
Celeste Troche Auburn 37- 34 71 -1
4 Bernadette Luse Ole Miss 35- 37 72 E
Kristy McPherson S Carolina 36- 36 72 E
6 Courtney Swaim Auburn 38- 35 73 +1
Diana Ramage Auburn 33- 40 73 +1
Adrienne Gautreaux S Carolina 37- 36 73 +1
Danielle Downey Auburn 36- 37 73 +1
*Anne Hutto Auburn 39- 34 73 +1
11 Carolin Landmann Tulane 36- 38 74 +2
Sarah Jacobs Vanderbilt 37- 37 74 +2
Brooke Mangan UAB 36- 38 74 +2
Brooke Shelton LSU 40- 34 74 +2
Kingsley Barrett Auburn 40- 34 74 +2
16 Sarah Johnston Alabama 38- 37 75 +3
Meredith Ward Vanderbilt 39- 36 75 +3
Nicki Cutler Vanderbilt 39- 36 75 +3
Mandy Tedder Alabama 39- 36 75 +3
20 Anna Strandberg Alabama 38- 38 76 +4
Kathy Schafer Tulane 39- 37 76 +4
Courtney Wood Vanderbilt 40- 36 76 +4
Erica Boozman Alabama 38- 38 76 +4
Elizabeth Hoffman Ole Miss 39- 37 76 +4
Joni Gossett Vanderbilt 39- 37 76 +4
26 Anna Knutsson Miss. St. 40- 37 77 +5
Nicky Perry Augusta St 39- 38 77 +5
Kacy Thompson S Carolina 39- 38 77 +5
Beth Irwin Miss. St. 38- 39 77 +5
Janet Dyer Miss. St. 39- 38 77 +5
*Devon Day LSU 38- 39 77 +5
*Tiffany Catafygiotu S Carolina 39- 38 77 +5
33 Anna Gertsson Miss. St. 42- 36 78 +6
Crystal Elliers N. Orleans 39- 39 78 +6
Lori Cate Ole Miss 40- 38 78 +6
Alessandra Perez CorpusChrs 41- 37 78 +6
Liza Mucheru CorpusChrs 41- 37 78 +6
Marcela Gonzalez Tulane 40- 38 78 +6
39 M. Newman-Gillespie CorpusChrs 40- 39 79 +7
Laura McCaslin Brmnghm So 36- 43 79 +7
Teesha Ash Ole Miss 39- 40 79 +7
Amanda Pettit N. Orleans 40- 39 79 +7
Melissa Mason CorpusChrs 40- 39 79 +7
Natalie Booth Miss. St. 40- 39 79 +7
Alexis Wooster Tulane 39- 40 79 +7
Sarah Hollowell Brmnghm So 37- 42 79 +7
Christina Guschanas UAB 41- 38 79 +7
*Kerrie Davis Ole Miss 38- 41 79 +7
49 Lauren Smith Augusta St 41- 39 80 +8
Lindsay Hulwick Tulane 39- 41 80 +8
Dorey Bungitak Brmnghm So 38- 42 80 +8
52 Jenni Elmore UAB 44- 37 81 +9
Isabel Dornellas LSU 41- 40 81 +9
Ashley Phillips Augusta St 41- 40 81 +9
Marci Robinson S Carolina 42- 39 81 +9
*Veronica Yatco Vanderbilt 40- 41 81 +9
57 Heather Lourie UAB 42- 40 82 +10
Karen Lausch Brmnghm So 43- 39 82 +10
59 Darby Sligh Alabama 45- 38 83 +11
Sarah Vanderpool N. Orleans 40- 43 83 +11
Brooke Hixon Ole Miss 43- 40 83 +11
Reetta Laakkonen S Carolina 40- 43 83 +11
63 Marika Pluta UAB 44- 40 84 +12
Erin Sarver LSU 45- 39 84 +12
Kelly McGurk Augusta St 43- 41 84 +12
*Katie Kane UAB 42- 42 84 +12
*Pia Alamaki Tulane 46- 38 84 +12
*Marie Svensson N. Orleans 42- 42 84 +12
69 Robynn Williams N. Orleans 42- 43 85 +13
Alli Henderson Augusta St 41- 44 85 +13
71 Amy Head N. Orleans 43- 43 86 +14
72 Tiffany Soza CorpusChrs 41- 46 87 +15
73 *Lacy Shelton Alabama 45- 45 90 +18
74 Haleigh Crump Brmnghm So 54- 56 110 +38
GOLFSTAT COLLEGIATE SCORING SYSTEM
Developed by: Mark Laesch, Golfstat
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