BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s golf team, ranked No. 5 in both the WGCA Coaches Poll and the Scoreboard by Clippd national college performance rankings, opens play Friday in the final regular season tournament at Sunset, South Carolina.
The three-day event is the Clemson Invitational at the par 72 (6,441 yards) The Reserve at Lake Keowee.
LSU was the runner-up in the event in 2023, posting a 7-under 857 total and was the champion of the event in 2022 in a much tougher scoring condition with a score of 891.
Five top-25 teams are included in the list of 16 participants for this year’s event, including defending champ No. 13 Ole Miss. Joining No. 5 LSU and host Clemson (No. 20) are No. 19 Texas A&M and No. 23 Vanderbilt. Also, in the field are: Augusta, Furman, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State, Tennessee, Virginia Tech and UNCW.
LSU will be on the course first on Friday in the opening round, starting at 8 a.m. CT with Kentucky, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. Due to expected weather the first round will now be played as a shotgun start with LSU’s wave off holes 5-8.
LSU will have its familiar lineup with graduate students Ingrid Lindblad and Latanna Stone, senior Carla Tejedo and junior Aine Donegan. Sophomore Taylor Riley returns to complete the LSU quintet in the play 5-count 4 score format.
Lindblad, the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and the Scoreboard by Clippd performance rankings, has been medalist/co-medalist the last two years in the tournament. The Swedish native shot 4-under par 212 in 2022 to win the event and tied for first in 2023 at 5-under 211, rallying with rounds of 75-67-69.
LSU as a team is averaging 284.10 this season with two team wins and two second-place finishes in the first seven tournaments. The team is on pace for a possible season record average that was set last year when the team averaged 286.65.
Lindblad is averaging what would could be the first LSU stroke average below 70 as she is averaging 68.89 heading into the event. Stone, who also has a win this season, is averaging 71.14, Donegan is at 71.67, Tejedo 72.43 and Riley 73.20.
Stone is ranked No. 25 in the WAGR, while Donegan is ranked 78th.
Lindblad (70.31) and Stone (72.23) are presently 1-2 in career stroke average in LSU women’s golf history and Tejedo is sixth (73.14).
The Clemson Invitational is expected to have tee times on Saturday with another shotgun start to conclude the event on Sunday. Live scoring is available at Golfstat.com.
While the weather was supposed to be in the 70s for Thursday’s practice round, there is potential for heavy rain on Friday with highs only in the 50s. There is a 50 percent chance of rain on Saturday morning before the sky clears for the afternoon and Sunday with somewhat warmer temperatures.