BATON ROUGE – The nationally ranked LSU women’s golf team opened the Moon Golf Invitational with a solid 5-under 283 first round on Saturday afternoon at Suntree Country Club in Melbourne, Florida.
On the par 72 course, LSU posted four counting scores of -2, -2, -1 and even par. The Tigers’ 5-under 283 finished the day as the second lowest score, only trailing Auburn’s 6-under 282. The two Tigers were joined by Louisville’s 2-under 286 and Ole Miss’ 1-under 287 as the four teams out of 17 to shoot under par on the day.
Saturday’s shotgun round started at 1:15 p.m. local time after the decision was made to move up the first round up from Sunday due to impending weather. What was originally supposed to be a full practice day saw the morning session serve as the practice round and a round one start following lunch.
LSU was led by teammates Ingrid Lindblad and Aine Donegan, who both posted 2-under 70s to open the tournament. Lindblad, the No. 1 ranked golfer in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, fired a bogey-free 2-under 70 while Donegan’s round saw her her tally five birdies and three bogeys to the same score. The two Tigers currently sit tied for sixth place on the individual leaderboard, four strokes behind solo leader Maisie Filler of Florida.
Latanna Stone finished round one with a 1-under 71 card that saw her finish the front nine at even par before she grabbed a crucial birdie on hole 18 to finish the round under par. Jordan Fischer was the final counting score of the day for the Tigers as she finished the day with a one birdie, one bogey even par 72 scorecard. LSU’s final score of the day came from Carla Tejedo, who shot a 1-over 73 opening round.
Consistency was the key to LSU’s success in the first round as the team finished with 65 pars, tying Wake Forest for the most in the field. Lindblad and Fischer’s 16 pars led all golfers on the day. Par-4s were another strength for the Tigers as they finished 3-under on those holes, good for second in the field on the day.
With impending weather coming to the area on Sunday, round two will take place on Monday, February 19, with tee times set to be announced on Sunday afternoon.
Moon Golf Invitational
Suntree Country Club – Melbourne, Fla.
First Round Team Results (Par 288)
1 Auburn 282 -6
2 LSU 283 -5
3 Louisville 286 -2
4 Ole Miss 287 -1
5 Virginia Tech 288 E
6 Arkansas 289 +1
T7 Wake Forest 290 +2
T7 Texas A&M 290 +2
T9 Northwestern 291 +3
T9 Florida 291 +3
11 Clemson 292 +4
T12 Duke 295 +7
T12 Duke 295 +7
14 Florida State 296 +8
T15 Alabama 297 +9
T15 Augusta 297 +9
17 UCF 298 +10
Individual Top 5 (Par 72)
1 Maisie Filler, Florida 66 -6
2 Adela Cernousek, Texas A&M 67 -5
T3 Lauryn Nguyen, Northwestern 69 -3
T3 Megan Schofill, Auburn 69 -3
T3 Anna Foster, Auburn 69 -3
LSU Scores
T6 Ingrid Lindblad 70 -2
T6 Aine Donegan 70 -2
T14 Latanna Stone 71 -1
T22 Jordan Fischer 72 E
T30 Carla Tejedo 73 +1