Tiger Golfers Take 4th At Mason Rudolph Championships

BATON ROUGE – Sophomore Aine Donegan continued her strong play early in her LSU career in the final round to help the LSU women’s golf team secure a fourth-place finish in the Mason Rudolph Championships Sunday at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee.

Also, senior Ingrid Lindblad finished the tournament with her 25th career top 10 collegiate finish, tying her at the moment for the most in school history by a female LSU golfer.

The Tigers for the second straight day posted a 6-under par round of 282, its fifth under par round in its first six rounds this season to finish the tournament at 3-under par 861 (297-282-282). Mississippi State rallied to win the tournament with a three-day total of 19-under par 845 (284-280-281), four shots better than Arizona at 15-under 849 and host Vanderbilt in third at 14-under 850. The Tigers were five shots clear of fifth place Auburn, which finished at 866.

Donegan, who finished in a tie for third in the opener at the Green Wave Fall Classic, had five birdies in her 4-under par round of 68, including four in the first seven holes of play. She finished at 1-under par 215 for a T18 finish with improving scores of 74-73-68.

Lindblad after a 2-over 74 in the opening round on Friday, posted a 5-under par 67 on Saturday and a 2-under 70 on Sunday to finished at 5-under par 211 and in a tie for seventh place. The 25th top 10 of Lindblad’s career tied her with Kristi Coats who posted 25 finishes in the top 10 during her career from 1990-93.

On the final day, the Tigers also counted a 2-under 70 from junior Carla Tejedo and a 2-over 74 from senior Latanna Stone. Tejedo finished with back-to-back under par rounds of 71 and 70 with five birdies on her card Sunday.

“After a slow start to the tournament on the first day, I felt like we backed it up with two very solid rounds of golf, shooting -12 under as a team over the last two rounds,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion. “After the first round our goal was to play better each day and we did that finishing Sunday with the second lowest round of the day.

“Ingrid continues to be a top 10 machine,” Runion said. “The roommates fed off each other (Donegan and Tejedo). Aine in just her second tournament as a Tiger put together another good tournament with a great round today. I was also proud of Carla for birdies on two of her last three holes to finish the day 2-under and help us move up the leaderboard.”

The Tigers played the par 5s at 10-under par and LSU’s 1-under par score on the par 3 holes was the best of any team in the tournament. LSU was T2 in total birdies with 50. Lindblad finished with 12 birdies for the three rounds with Tejedo rolling in 11.

LSU now returns back home before setting its sights on the third tournament of the fall, the Jackson T. Stephens Cup at the prestigious Seminole Golf Club, Oct. 10-12 in Juno Beach, Florida. The Tigers are the defending champions of this tournament, played in Roland, Arkansas last year that features both stroke play and match play. The Stephens Cup will have national television coverage on The Golf Channel.

Mason Rudolph Golf Championships
Vanderbilt Legends Club – Franklin, Tennessee
Final Team Results (Par 288-864)
1 Mississippi State 284-280-281 – 845 -19; 2 Arizona 282-278-289 – 849 -15; 3 Vanderbilt 283-275-292 – 850 -14; 4 LSU 297-282-282 – 861 -3; 5 Auburn 291-287-88 – 866 +2; 6 Chattanooga 300-279-294 – 873 +9; 7 Alabama 297-292-285 – 874 +10; 8 Ohio State 295-288-292 – 875 +11; 9 Kentucky 289-295-293 – 877 +13; 10 Georgia 297-295-287 – 879 +15; 11 Denver 296-292-298 – 886 +22; 12 Georgia Southern 303-293-292 – 888 +24; 13 Washington 292-294-306 – 892 +28; 14 Middle Tennessee 302-309-298 – 909 +45

Individual Top 5 (Par 72-216)
1 Megan Schofill, Auburn, 68-69-70 – 207 -9; T2 Jenny Bae, Georgia, 69-72-68 – 209 -7; T2 Dorota Zalewska, Chattanooga, 70-68-71 – 209 -7; T4 Julia Lopez Ramirez, Mississippi State, 73-71-66 – 210 -6; Celina Sattelkau, Vanderbilt, 69-70-71 – 210 -6; T4 Hannah Levi, Mississippi State 71-68-71 – 210 -6

LSU Scores
T7 Ingrid Lindblad 74-67-70 – 211 -5
T18 Aine Donegan 74-73-68 – 215 -1
T24 Carla Tejedo 76-71-70 – 217 +1
T33 Latanna Stone 75-72-74 – 221 +5
T35 Alden Wallace 74-72-76 – 222 +6