BATON ROUGE – The nationally-ranked LSU women’s golf team starts its third tournament of the fall season Monday at the famed Medinah Country Club outside Chicago when it takes part in the Illini Women’s Invitational.
A total of 15 teams are in the competition which begins with a 36-hole shotgun round on Monday and the final 18-holes on windy. The course will play at par 72 and 6,166 yards.
LSU finished second in their opening event at the Cougar Classic and was seventh in the low-scoring Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, Tennessee in their last start.
“The team and I are looking forward to being back in Chicago and playing at Medinah Country Club,” said LSU Head Coach Garrett Runion. “It’s always fun to compete at a place that has hosted multiple majors as well as a Ryder Cup (2012). Our first and only time playing up here was in 2021 and we shot one of our lowest rounds of the season on a rained soaked course. Hopefully having an older, experienced team will help us out this year as four of our players played in this tournament two years ago.”
LSU shot rounds of 286-281-286 for an 11-under total of 853 to finish fourth in the 2021 event and Ingrid Lindblad and Carla Tejedo both finished T3 at 6-under par 210.
Both Lindblad and Tejedo are back in the lineup for the Illini event along with Latanna Stone, who played in the 2021 event and Aine Donegan, who played at the course when she was at Indiana.
“This year the weather looks like there will be a lot less rain but cooler temps with more wind that could make this place even more challenging,” said Coach Runion. “Driving the ball straight and playing out of the fairways will be a big advantage this week. We took advantage of our fall break with no classes Thursday and Friday and came to Chicago a day early to played North Shore Country Club to get adjusted to the cooler weather and northern grasses. I have been pleased with the consistency our team has played in the first two events. I believe the highest round we have counted is a 74 and would like to see that trend continue.”
The expected temperatures on both days is forecast to be in the mid-to-upper 50s.
The Tigers through six rounds of play is averaging 279.33 with under par rounds in five-of-the-six year opening rounds.
The Tigers will go with the same team five that it played in the first two events with grad students Stone and Lindblad, senior Tejedo, junior Donegan and sophomore Taylor Riley. Sophomore Edit Hertzman will make her season debut playing in the 84-player individual field.
Joining the Tigers and host Illinois in the tournament are: Alabama, Georgia, Houston, Ole Miss, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, San Jose State, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech and UNCW.
LSU will play Monday’s two rounds with Ole Miss and Houston. Live scoring will be available at Golfstat.com and updates during the rounds on “X” @LSUwomensgolf.