BATON ROUGE – LSU Head Women’s Golf Coach Garrett Runion and Assistant Coach Alexis Rather have made a point of bringing in golf talent from various countries and again this year have searched the world for top ladies to join the nationally-ranked LSU women’s golf program.
Wednesday, they added three more young golf stars who have had their financial papers approved by the Athletics Department.
Joining the Tigers for the 2025-26 season will be Ryleigh Knaub of Debary, Florida; Perla Sol Sigurbrandsdottir of Reykjavik, Iceland; and, Lucia Iraola Paniagua of Hondarribia, Spain.
“One thing I can say is all three of these players are great people first and even better golfers,” said Coach Runion. “All three of them are motivated to help give us a chance to win a national championship. We can’t wait to add them to our current roster and see how far we can go in the years to come.”
Knaub, the No. 8 women’s golfer in the 2025 class, has had three top-10 finishes in AJGA play in 2024. Her stellar career includes a spot on the first-ever U.S. National Development prog-am (started last year) and a spot on the U.S. National Team.
Knaub represented Team USA in the 2023 Junior Solheim and Junior Ryder Cup competitions and was a first-team Rolex Junior All-American in 2023. She participated in the 2024 USGA Junior Girls Nationals.
Her high school, Lake Mary, has won Class 3A state titles in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and Knaub and her teammates will play for another in a few weeks.
She was runner-up at the 2023 Dye Junior Invitational, and, captured the 2023 Dustin Johnson World Junior and finished second in 2024.
“Ryleigh Knaub is one of the best American players in the country,” said Coach Runion. “She is an absolute ball striker and part of the first national development team. That’s a huge honor. Fun fact: She goes to the same high school Dylan Crews attended. I know she is extremely motivated to win a national championship and join a fellow Tiger from Lake Mary with a title.”
Sigurbrandsdottir is a member of the Icelandic National Team and competed for Team Europe in the 2024 Junior Solheim Cup. The 2022 Icelandic Girls National Champion and the 2023 Iceland National Match Play Champion. Sigurbrandsdottir was 26th in the World Junior Girls Championship in 2024 and participated in the R&A Girls Amateur Championship.
Three times in 2024 she has posted top eight finishes in major events including a fourth in the Junior Orange Bowl International tournament, sixth in the ANNIKA Europe Invitational and eighth in the Portuguese Ladies Amateur.
Sigurbrandsdottir, who attends the Commercial College of Iceland, is a two-time participant for Team Iceland in the World Junior Girls Championship in Canada.
She was a winner in the United States in 2021 in the prestigious Orlando Junior Amateur.
“Perla is a very tough player, very experienced in tough conditions. She is our first women’s player from Iceland and she has a lot of international experience being a part of a Junior Solheim and Ryder Cup last year. She has also played a bunch here in the States as she has a brother that plays for the Missouri Tigers (Dagbjartur).”
Paniagua, who attends Colegio Leones Jesus Maestro, was runner-up in the 2024 Biarritz Cup in France with scores of 67, 65, 66, 70 on a par 70 layout.
She was fifth in the 2024 Spanish International Stroke Play Championship and was fifth in the Under 18 division of the Campeonato International de Andalucia.
“She was rising up the ranks and then was sidelined with an injury,” Coach Runion said. “But she has come back strong from that, playing really well in 2024. She is a friend of (LSU freshman) Rocio Tejedo and she is well thought of in Spain.”