BATON ROUGE – The first major preseason rankings of the 2023-24 women’s golf season are out and the LSU women’s golf team is ranked No. 3 by The Golf Channel as announced on Friday.
The Tigers are also No. 4 in the preseason in the WGCA/Mizuno Coaches Poll, also announced on Friday.
Present Pac 12 teams Stanford and USC are the 1-2 selections in the Golf Channel women’s poll, while Stanford and Wake Forest are 1-2 in the Coaches Poll. Texas A&M is three in the coach’s poll.
LSU received three of the 21 first-place votes in the WGCA poll.
In the individual preseason rankings by Golf Channel, LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad is at the top of the first-team rankings, while Latanna Stone is on the second team.
Writer Brently Romine of the Golf Channel posted this about the Tigers in his ranking of No. 3:
“Tigers head coach Garrett Runion received amazing news – twice – as Lindblad and Stone have decided to stay for the entirety of their COVID years. Lindblad is the program’s greatest player of all-time with 11 wins among 33 top-10s, and should she stay at No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking by season’s end, she’ll get a ticket to Q-Series in 2024. ‘She wants to win a national championship, as a team and individually,’ Runion said of Lindblad, a semifinalist at the Women’s British Amateur and solo third at the European Ladies this summer.
“Stone also had had an excellent break, highlighted by a runner-up finish at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, and she’s poised to build off a two-win senior campaign. (Carla) Tejedo was a bit inconsistent last season … she was top 10 at the European Ladies, however, and could easily break through as an All-American this season.
“(Aine) Donegan had a breakout summer, winning 2.5 points at the Vagliano Trophy, including a win over Lindblad in singles, and leading the U.S. Women’s Open after 18 holes before ending up T-45. If her putter gets better, Donegan could also be an All-American. The fifth spot will be up for grabs with Fischer, the first amateur to win the Florida Women’s Open, a candidate along with Hertzman, who showed flashes last year, and Riley, who made the Round of 16 at the U.S. Women’s Amateur this summer.
“LSU has consistently been one of the top teams the past few seasons, and though they’ve yet to make match play at the NCAA Championship, they were one of just five teams to make the top-15 cut all three years at Grayhawk while also being the only team to win at least one match at SECs the past three years (they have one conference title to show for it). ‘I don’t want a good team; I want a good program,’ Runion said. ‘And to have a good program, you need to be consistent and be around it. … Coming up short a little bit, but the consistency I’m very proud of.’”
Golf Channel Pre-Season Selections
Top 30 teams
1. Stanford
2. USC
3. LSU
4. Texas A&M
5. Wake Forest
6. Oregon
7. Texas
8. Arizona State
9. Auburn
10. Florida State
11. South Carolina
12. Mississippi State
13. Ole Miss
14. Duke
15. Baylor
16. Arizona
17. Florida
18. UCLA
19. Vanderbilt
20. Virginia
21. UCF
22. Pepperdine
23. Georgia
24. San Jose State
25. Clemson
26. Texas Tech
27. Arkansas
28. Iowa State
29. Michigan State
30. Alabama
Next five: 31. Kentucky, 32. Oklahoma State, 33. Northwestern, 34. Ohio State, 35. Cal
• • •
GOLF CHANNEL’S PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAMS
FIRST TEAM
1. Ingrid Lindblad, Gr., LSU
2. Rachel Kuehn, Gr., Wake Forest
3. Julia Lopez Ramirez, Jr., Mississippi State
4. Amari Avery, Jr., USC
5. Rachel Heck, Sr., Stanford
6. Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, Fr., Texas A&M
7. Hannah Darling, Jr., South Carolina
8. Charlotte Heath, Gr., Florida State
9. Lottie Woad, Soph., Florida State
10. Megan Schofill, Gr., Auburn
SECOND TEAM
11. Amanda Sambach, Jr., Virginia
12. Latanna Stone, Gr., LSU
13. Carolina Lopez-Chacarra, Jr., Wake Forest
14. Andrea Lignell, Sr., Ole Miss
15. Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, Oklahoma State
16. Caitlyn Macnab, Gr., Ole Miss
17. Jennie Park, Gr., Texas A&M
18. Kajsa Arwefjall, Gr., San Jose State
19. Catherine Park, Soph., USC
20. Kiara Romero, Fr., Oregon
THIRD TEAM
21. Paula Martin Sampedro, Fr., Stanford
22. Zoe Campos, Jr., UCLA
23. Jeneath Wong, Soph., Pepperdine
24. Caley McGinty, Sr., Ohio State
25. Bailey Shoemaker, Fr., USC
26. Jensen Castle, Gr., Kentucky
27. Sadie Englemann, Sr., Stanford
28. Ting-Hsuan Huang, Fr., Oregon
29. Mirabel Ting, Soph., Florida State
30. Maria Jose Marin, Fr., Arkansas
Next five: 31. Phoebe Brinker, Sr., Duke; 32. Shannon Tan, Soph., Texas Tech; 33. Laney Frye, Sr., Kentucky; 34. Ashley Menne, Sr., Arizona State; 35. Bentley Cotton, Sr., Texas
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WGCA/Mizuno Coaches Poll
Rank/ University (First Place Votes)/Points
1/ Stanford (11)/500
2/ Wake Forest (6)/483
3/Texas A&M/450
4/LSU (3)/428
5/Southern California (1)/392
6/Mississippi State/385
7/South Carolina/375
8/Texas/355
9/Auburn University/314
10/Florida State University/312
11/Oregon/292
12/Baylor University/263
13/San Jose State/257
14/Arizona State/250
15/Pepperdine University/236
16/Mississippi/195
17/Vanderbilt/169
18/Northwestern/166
19/Oklahoma State/124
20/Southern Methodist/118
T21/Iowa State/98
21/Georgia/98
23/Virginia/92
24/Florida/89
25/Clemson/72
Others Receiving Votes: Duke University (69); University of Central Florida (66); The Ohio State University (55); University of Arizona (40); University of California, Los Angeles (35); University of California, Berkeley (12); University of Kentucky (8); Texas Tech University (7); University of Alabama (7); University of Arkansas (5); Michigan State University (3); University of New Mexico (3); Kent State University (1); University of North Carolina (1)