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LSU's Latanna Stone Perseveres For 67; Tigers Shoot Their Lowest NCAA Championship Round of Even Par

Latanna Stone posted a 5-under 67 on Saturday at the NCAA Championships. Photo by Peter Nguyen.

by Kent Lowe
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LSU's Latanna Stone Perseveres For 67; Tigers Shoot Their Lowest NCAA Championship Round of Even Par

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – When Saturday’s very early morning started, LSU senior Latanna Stone really wasn’t sure what her second round in the NCAA Women’s Golf Championships would look like.

Stone apparently slept with her left arm in an awkward position overnight and that caused problems when she woke up and tried to extend her arm.

Now to top everything else off, that wake up came around 4 a.m. Scottsdale time in preparation for the start of LSU’s second round wave at 6:10 a.m. with Stone in the fourth group off at 6:40.

How did it work out? Just fine, thank you.

Stone, from Riverview, Florida and coming off a 1-over 73 in Friday afternoon’s opening round, made 10 consecutive pars, then five consecutive birdies and three more pars to complete a clean card 67 in the second round to stand at 4-under par 140 after 36 holes (73-67).

At the end of Saturday’s play, Stone was in a group tied for ninth place as she moved up 42 spots in the standings as the No. 24-ranked collegiate golfer in the Golfstat rankings is just six shots out of the tournament lead held by Wake Forest’s Lauren Walsh who has fired back-to-back 67s to stand at 10-under 134.

Catherine Park of USC posted an 8-under 64 to tie former Tiger Megan McChrystal’s aggregate scoring mark in the NCAA Championships back in 2010. Park is at 9-under after 36 holes.

But back to Stone. Let’s let her take us through the morning.

“I slept with my (left) arm bent and when I woke up, I went to extend it and I had this weird shooting pain in my arm. So (trainer Cory Couture, traveling with the team) fixed me up. He put a heating pad on it which numbed it, took some medicine and put a (compression) sleeve on it. It was okay. On the back nine it began to hurt. I told (Coach Garrett Runion) that basically today I made a ton of pars and five putts. And those five putts were for birdie and that really helped. I was not thinking about making birdies. I was just like let’s just get through today. I didn’t know how I was going to be when I started out.”

It was a variance of holes that were part of the five-hole birdie streak – the par 5 11th hole (539 yds); the par 4 12th (390 yards); the par 3 13th (156 yards) and par 4 14th (374 yards) and 15th (415 yards).

In the last 22 holes, Stone has six birdies and 16 pars with no bogeys.

Stone’s round of 67 was the fourth lowest round ever posted by an LSU women’s golfer in the NCAA Championships (final tournament). McChrystal’s 64 came in 2010 while Austin Ernst posted 66 twice (2nd, 4th rounds) in her win in the championships in 2011.

Speaking of top marks, LSU as a team posted an even par 288, the lowest single round LSU has ever posted in an NCAA Championship event. LSU’s previous mark was a 1-over 289 in the final round of the 2011 national championship, the first of LSU’s back-to-back third place team finishes.

The 288 was able to move LSU up four spots to 14th place by the end of the second day. LSU finished the day in 14th place at 6-over 582 (294-288).

Although LSU is lower in the standings with the overall lower scores, LSU’s 582 total after 36 holes is five shots lower than where LSU stood at 587 after 36 holes in 2022, 2021 and 2012.

LSU played the front nine at 3-over par, but with Stone leading the way on the back nine, LSU was 3-under. LSU stayed at 1-over for the day much of the final three holes but Ingrid Lindblad in the last group, came up with a birdie on the par 5 18th hole.

Lindblad had posted her drive to the right off the tee in some trouble but was able to advance the ball to a perfect yardage and got up and down for the birdie putt for an even par 72. She stands at 2-under 142 after 36 holes.

Carla Tejedo was also under part as well at 1-under 71 and is at even par 144 (73-71). Tejedo opened with six pars and birdies on the par 5 7th, the par 3 8th and the par 4 10th.

“It was a solid round,” said Coach Runion, who has taken the Tigers to the NCAA Championship for the third straight year. “Our goal all year has been whatever we shoot the first round we want to improve the next round and we did that today. Ingrid’s birdie on the last to make it an even par round was good. Made lunch taste a little bit better. I’m very pleased with this round, especially with the way they started. I’m proud of the way they competed and kept going. A couple of them didn’t start off the greatest and they just kept fighting and showed a lot of competitive toughness.

“You have to give a lot of credit to Latanna (Stone). Five straight birdies. No bogeys. Just really put the team on her back and carried us across the finish line today and I was proud of the way Carla (Tejedo) played. She was playing with the No. 1 amateur in the world (Rose Zhang of Stanford) and that can be a challenge sometimes and she held her own, a 1-under 71. Ingrid didn’t drive it very well today and still managed an even par round.”

LSU also counted a six-over 78 from graduate student Alden Wallace, who was making her first start for LSU since September in this event.

Through two days, with play still on the course Saturday, the Tigers were still not what Coach Runion hoped for on the par 5s at 5-over for the five players, but they have improved to 2-over after 36 holes on the par 3s. LSU has 28 birdies over the two days, including 12 on Saturday.

LSU will be in the final wave off the front nine on Sunday as the top 15 teams in the competition will be back on course first. LSU will be with Arizona and Duke at 8 a.m. Scottsdale time (10 a.m. Baton Rouge time). The field will be cut in half at the end of the third round and the 15th remaining teams and the nine top individuals not on the 15 teams will compete on Monday for the eight match play spots and to decide the NCAA individual champion.

Live updates will be available on Golfstat.com and updates on the round can also be found on Twitter @LSUwomensgolf and notes @LSUKent.

NCAA Women’s Golf Championship
Grayhawk Golf Club – Raptor Course
Scottsdale, Arizona
Second Round Team Results (Par 288-576)
1 Wake Forest 279-820 – 559 -17
2 Stanford 288-273 – 561 -15
3 South Carolina 286-276 – 562 -14
4 Texas 292-276 – 568 -8
T5 Oklahoma State 280-291 – 571 -5
T5 Texas A&M 287-284 – 571 -5
7 Southern California 296-276 – 572 -4
T8 Pepperdine 2985-279 – 574 -2
T8 Florida State 288-286 – 574 -2
10 New Mexico 287-288 – 575 -1
11 Georgia 286-290 – 576 E
12 Baylor 289-290 – 579 +3
13 Arizona 292-288 – 580 +4
14 LSU 294-288 – 582 +6
15 Duke 288-296 – 584 +8
16 San Jose State 292-293 – 585 +9
T17 SMU 291-295 – 586 +10
T17 Clemson 299-287 – 586 +10
19 Michigan State 293-294 – 587 +11
T20 TCU 293-295 – 588 +12
T20 Ole Miss 300-288 – 588 +12
T22 Texas Tech 291-298 – 589 +13
T22 Mississippi State 301-288 – 589 +13
24 Oregon State 297-293 – 590 +14
25 Virginia 298-293 – 591 +15
26 Augusta 296-297 – 593 +17
27 Northwestern 303-291 – 594 +18
28 Vanderbilt 305-292 – 597 +21
29 Tulsa 301-306 – 607 +31
30 North Carolina State 305-304 – 609 +33

Individual Top 5 (Par 72-144)
1 Lauren Walsh, Wake Forest – 67-67 – 134 -10
2 Catherine Park, Southern California – 71-64 – 135 -9
3 Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, Oklahoma State – 66-70 – 136 -8
T4 Adela Cernousek, Texas A&M – 69-68 – 137 -7
T4 Lucia Lopez-Ortega, San Jose State – 71-68 – 139 -5

LSU Scores
T9 Latanna Stone 73-67 – 140 -4
T24 Ingrid Lindblad 70-72 – 142 -2
T38 Carla Tejedo 73-71 – 144 E
T137 Alden Wallace 78-78 – 156 +12
T140 Aine Donegan 78-79 – 157 +13