BATON ROUGE – LSU women’s golf head coach Garrett Runion announced on Wednesday that national letter-of-intent papers have been received and approved for three student-athletes that will be part of the Tiger squad starting in the 2024-25 campaign.
Signing with LSU was Rocio Tejedo from Castellon de Plana, Spain; Josefin Widal from Halmstad, Sweden; and, Samantha Olson of Phoenix, Arizona.
“I am very excited about our 2024 signing class,” said Coach Runion. “Not only are Rocio Tejedo, Josefin Widal, and Samantha Olson great players. but they are great people that come from great families. Rocio and Josefin come in with a ton of high-level international experience, most recently playing for Team Europe at the junior Ryder Cup and junior Solheim Cup. We are extra familiar with Rocio as her sister, Carla Tejedo, has been on the team the last four years, and I look forward to having another Tejedo on the team.
“Samantha Olson, has a lot of experience in the U.S. with quality top-10 finishes in big events like stroke play at the U.S. Girls Junior Silver Belle, and the Pete and Alice Dye Junior. These three ladies know the standard that has been set before them and I fully expect them to come in next fall and make an immediate impact on the LSU Women’s Golf Program.”
Tejedo, as of Wednesday is ranked No. 19 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. She was a member of the winning European Junior Ryder Cup and Junior Solheim Cup teams in 2023. Tejedo also finished fifth in the R&A Girls’ Amateur, sixth in the European Ladies Championship and 14th in the Toyota Junior World Cup.
Tejedo was part of the winning Vagliano Trophy team representing continental Europe along with current LSU star Ingrid Lindblad in the match against Great Britain and Ireland. That team included present Tiger Aine Donegan. Tejedo was also a member of the winning Spanish team at the European Girls Championship.
In the first 22 weeks of 2023, Tejedo recorded five wins starting with the Copa Andalusia (winning for the second straight year) and concluding with a win in the German Girls Open.
Widal, who hails from the same hometown and golf club in Sweden as LSU’s Lindblad, also represented the winning Team Europe squad in the junior Solheim Cup.
She represented Sweden in the World Junior Girls Championship and the European Girls Team Championship. Widal finished in the top 10 at the Spanish Amateur and won the stroke play portion of the R&A Girls Amateur.
Widal posted a win this year in the Swedish Junior Elite series with three other wins coming in the second half of 2022.
Olson was T6 in stroke play qualifying in the 2022 United States Junior Girls Championship and was 10th in the Joanne Winter Arizona Silver Belle Championship at the end of the past year. She finished Top 20 in both the Fortinet Girls Invitational at Stanford and the Justin Thomas Junior Championships.
Olson has also been involved with Golf Fore Africa charitable foundation that was established by LPGA Hall of Famer Betsy King with the mission of engaging the golf community to fund clean water projects in Africa.