LSU Scores Third Victory Of Year; Four Tigers In Top 13
LSU, your champions of the Moon Golf Invitational. Photo by Britt Runion
BATON ROUGE – The nationally-ranked LSU women’s golf team celebrated Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday in style as the Tigers captured their third title of the 2022-23 wraparound golf season with a wire-to-wire victory in the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Florida.
The win is the 10th of Head Coach’s Garrett Runion’s five years as the lead of LSU’s women’s program. In the last 10 tournaments, dating back to last spring, the Tigers have recorded five wins and two second place finishes.
LSU in the final round posted a third consecutive under par round, this time a 4-under 284 to finish 54 holes at 30-under 834 (276-274-284). The 834 total is the second lowest 54-hole total of the season and the third lowest 54-hole total in school history.
LSU’s 30-under total is also a tournament record for the six-year-old event.
“It was a great victory,” said Coach Runion. “Any time you can go wire-to-wire it is a good feeling because it’s so hard to do. Florida made a run in the final round that made it interesting, but it came down to our “Final Five” (holes) that we played well on all week. It’s great to get a victory on the second leg of this three-week stretch we have. “
Northwestern and Florida both shot 6-under rounds of 282 on the final day to move up into second and third. Northwestern ends up nine shots behind LSU in second at 21-under par 843 (281-280-282) and Florida finished three more shots back at 18-under par 846 (281-283-282). Auburn, which started the day in second rounded out the top four at 15-under par 849 (281-278-290).
Individually, LSU had four golfers finish in the top 13 and all five team players finished in the top 23.
Senior Ingrid Lindblad and Carla Tejedo both finished T5 in the standings with 54-hole totals of 8-under par 208. It is the second 208 total of the year for the Tejedo, a junior from Spain. For Lindblad it adds to her school record of top 10 finishes, now at 29, including all five events she has appeared in this season.
Lindblad posted rounds of 68-67-73 and Tejedo had rounds of 66-68-74.
Senior Latanna Stone and sophomore Aine Donegan both continued their move up the leaderboard with under par rounds on the final day to finish at 5-under par 211. Stone had five birdies in carding a 2-under 68 to go with previous rounds of 72-71 to move up 20 spots on the final day. Donegan, who had a 20-spot move on Monday, fired a five-birdie 70 to move up seven more spots after rounds of 72-69-70.
Freshman Edit Hertzman had rounds of 70-70-73 and finished at 3-under 213 and in a tie for 23rd.
Senior Jessica Bailey, playing as an individual, had her second under par round of the event with a 71.
“We’re so proud of Carla (Tejedo) on how she bounced back from last week,” said the LSU Coach. “Latanna (Stone) had a great final round (Tuesday), Edit (Hertzman) played very steady and Aine (Donegan) had another great tournament. We had four Tigers, including Ingrid Lindblad, finish in the Top 13, which is great. Our goal was to have all three team scores this week be under par and we did that. All in all, very proud of the ladies. We played great and now have a short break before we head to the Darius (Rucker Invitational), which we’ll be ready for.”
LSU finished as the tournament leader on par 5 (-24) and par 4 holes (-7) and was five best of the field in birdies with 63. Lindblad led the field on the par 5 holes with a -8 total, including an eagle on 18 on the second day.
The Tigers after this trip to the Bahamas and Florida return to Baton Rouge for a few days before heading to Hilton Head, South Carolina for the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, Feb. 27-March 1. That tournament will feature live coverage each afternoon on the Golf Channel.
Moon Golf Invitational
Suntree Country Club
Melbourne, Florida
Final Team Results (Par 288-564)
1 LSU 276-274-284 – 834 -30; 2 Northwestern 281-280-282 – 843 -21; 3 Florida 281-283-282 – 846 -18; 4 Auburn 281-278-290 – 849 -15; 5 Michigan State 285-289-276 – 850 -14; 6 Clemson 279-288-287 – 854 -10; T7 Arkansas 285-284-286 – 855 -9; T7 Vanderbilt 282—286-287 – 855 -9; T7 UCF 278-283-294 – 855 -9; T7 Michigan 286-278-291 – 855 -9; 11 Florida State 286-291-279 – 856 -8; 12 North Carolina 281-285-290 – 866 +2; 13 Alabama 289-297-291 – 877 +13; 14 Virginia Tech 284-293-301 – 878 +14; 15. Louisville +15 295-292-292 – 879 +15; 16 Augusta 288-296-296 – 880 +16; 17. Miami 300-304-305 – 909 +45
Individual Top 5 (Par 72-216)
1 Mirabel Ting, Augusta, 68-67-68 – 203 -13 (won playoff)
2 Leila Raines, Michigan State, 69-69-65 – 203 -13
3 Lottie Woad, Florida, State, 66-69-71 – 206 -10
T5 Ingrid Lindblad, LSU, 68-67-73 – 208 -8
T5 Carla Tejedo, LSU, 66-68-74 – 208 -8
T5 Jackie Lucena, Florida, 69-73-66 – 208 -8
T5 Lauryn Nguyen, Northwestern, 68-72-68 – 208 -8
T5 Kajal Mistry, Arkansas, 70-69-69 – 208 -8
LSU Scores
T5 Ingrid Lindblad 68-67-73 – 208 -8
T5 Carla Tejedo 66-68-74 – 208 -8
T13 Latanna Stone 72-71-68 – 211 -5
T13 Aine Donegan 72-69-70 – 211 -5
T23 Edit Hertzman 70-70-73 – 213 -3
T42 Jessica Bailey 70-76-71 – 217 +1