BATON ROUGE – Music, golf and national television coverage are on tap for the No. 4 LSU Women’s Golf Team when they take part in the prestigious Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at the Long Cove Golf Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina starting on Monday.
The event presented by the country music star who puts on a Sunday night concert for the tournament teams every year has been known to draw a top-notch field and this year is no exception as play gets under way with the first of three 18-hole rounds.
The tournament is the first of three regular season college events The Golf Channel will televise on the road to the men’s and women’s NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California. The Rucker was the first all-women’s regular season collegiate golf tournament to be presented on the network two years ago.
The coverage will air beginning at 1:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday on Golf Channel and Peacock.
LSU is the defending champion of the event, having won the guitar trophy from Rucker a year ago. LSU posted a 54-hole total of 6-over 858 (283-288-287) to win by four shots over host South Carolina and eight shots over Auburn.
Most of those teams will return with South Carolina right behind LSU in the current national Scoreboard by Clippd rankings at No. 5. Joining LSU and the Gamecocks in the field (ranking in parenthesis) are Alabama, Arizona State (20), Arkansas (6), Auburn (11), Baylor, Duke (18), Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Northwestern (12), Ohio State, Oregon (9), Texas (7), Vanderbilt (21) and Wake Forest (2).
LSU is coming off an impressive finish in defending its crown at the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Florida breaking out of a tie with Auburn entering the final round to win by 16 shots after shooting an 11-under 277 in the final round.
Both world No. 1 amateur Ingrid Lindblad and Aine Donegan tied for second in the event at 6-under par 210. Lindblad had rounds of 70-72-68, while Donegan came in at 70-69-71. Latanna Stone, ranked 18th in the world, posted 1-under 215 for the Tigers with rounds of 71-75-69.
Carla Tejedo, who shot 69 in the final round to help pace LSU, will also be in the lineup as will freshman Jordan Fischer.
LSU will be paired with Wake Forest and host South Carolina in the final wave off the front nine beginning at 10 a.m. CT on Monday. Live scoring will be available on Golfstat.com.