BATON ROUGE – The 2024-25 fall women’s golf season begins on Monday for No. 13 LSU as they open team play in the two-day Cougar Classic at the Yeamans Hall course in Charleston, South Carolina.
It’s the start of a somewhat new era for the women’s golf program under seventh year head coach Garrett Runion with Ingrid Lindblad, Latanna Stone and Carla Tejedo moving on after completing their successful eligibility, but there are a lot of veteran stars in this group that has helped LSU to NCAA Championship appearances and along with a couple of young stars realize what it takes to succeed in college golf.
There will be 17 teams competing in the Cougar Classic, which last year proved to be a low-scoring affairs. LSU and host Charleston will be joined by: Auburn, Boston College, Florida, Furman, Georgia, Georgia Southern, Georgetown, Maryland, Miami, Mississippi, NC State, Penn State, SMU, Tennessee and Virginia Tech.
LSU won the Cougar Classic in 2004 with an 873 54-hole total and was second a year ago behind Ole Miss with 821 which was 31-under par.
LSU will go with senior, member of the NCAA All-Championships team a year and coming off a Curtis Cup team win with Great Britain & Ireland, Aine Donegan. Also returning from last year’s NCAA Championship appearance is junior Taylor Riley. Making a return to the team lineup is LSU’s other senior, Elsa Svensson and teeing it up for the first time in college golf is Rocio Tejedo, ranked No. 38 in the World Amateur rankings and the younger sister of Carla Tejedo
Rounding out the team lineup is Swedish freshman, Josefin Widal, with junior Edit Hertzman, playing as an individual competitor.
“It’s always exciting at the beginning of the year and this year is no different, there is a lot of new and exciting things going on,” Runion, who team took to the course Sunday afternoon for a practice round, said. “We have some older, upper-class players with some new, underclass players that I will be looking forward to seeing what they are capable of. Donegan is one of two players who played in this event last year and she played very well. Her experience and guidance will be very valuable this season.
“Elsa Svensson, who was a contributing freshman on the 2022 SEC Championship team, will be returning to the lineup after battling some injuries the last two seasons. She had a great two weeks of practice and know she’s eager to tee it up again with the team. Josefin and Rocio are both very competitive with a lot of international experience. They have followed LSU golf for a while now and have watched what Latanna Stone, Ingrid Lindblad and Carla Tejedo have done before them, so they know the standard and there’s no doubt in my mind they will be working hard to beat some of their records.
“Completing the team lineup is junior Taylor Riley,” said Runion. “To say she comes from a golf family is an understatement. Her mother played on teams that advanced to NCAA Championships and her father was a very successful PGA star and longtime college coach.”
Not only will those six members of the Tiger squad be competing Monday and Tuesday, two other members of the women’s team will play as individuals at the Green Wave Invitational at TPC Louisiana in Avondale.
Sophomore Jordan Fischer and freshman Samantha Olson will be in the field which like the Cougar Classic will play 36 holes on Monday before the final 18 holes on Tuesday.
The Cougar Classic is the only returning tournament on the fall schedule which will include a unique appearance by both the men’s and women’s LSU teams in The Blessings Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas at the end of September that will be televised on The Golf Channel.
“After The Blessings, we will be going west to Stanford’s event,” said Runion. “With the NCAA Championship in California, I feel like it’s important to play at least one event out west as well as test our team against some of the best west coast schools. Lastly, because of our strong play last season we will be playing in the East Lake Cup in Atlanta that will be televised as well on the Golf Channel. All in all, with all the change to this season, I am looking forward to getting to started and seeing what this team is capable of doing. The goal is always to be better in April and May then we are in September. “
Live scoring will be available on the Scoreboard.clippd.com web site under the results/live scoring tabs. Updates during the day will be available on “X” @LSUwomensgolf and Facebook.com/lsuwomensgolf.