Tiger Golfers Post Strong Second After Opening Round At Rucker
Josefin Widal shot one of two even par 71s by the Tigers Monday.
BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s golf course put itself in strong position after one round of the prestigious Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at Hilton Head Island’s Long Cove course in South Carolina.
On a cool and windy day, with difficult scoring conditions on a tough golf layout, LSU posted a very nice 5-over par score of 289, one shot behind first-round leader Arkansas at 288. The field is tightly bunched with Vanderbilt one shot back of LSU at 290 and four teams at 291 – Texas, host South Carolina, Wake Forest and Arizona State.
A freshman and a senior Swedish duo led the Tigers in scoring in the opening round as freshman Josefin Widal and senior Elsa Svensson both carded even par rounds of 71 on the first day. The two Tigers are right in the thick of the individual race at T7 as just 12 players shot even or under par on Monday.
The Tigers started on hole 10 and after turning in 1-over 36, Widal had four front nine birdies to shoot 1-under 35 on holes 1-9 for her 71, while Svensson did the opposite with three birdies on the first nine holes she played (9-18) to turn in 1-under 34, before coming home with a 1-over 37 for her 71.
The Tigers would also count a 2-over 73 from senior Aine Donegan and a 3-over 74 from freshman Rocio Tejedo. Donegan had two birdies on her round with a long 30-foot par save on the final hole to stay at 2-over, while Tejedo had three birdies on her card.
Kendall Todd of Arkansas is the individual leader after day one with a 3-under round of 68, with Ava Merrill of Vanderbilt and Sam Whateley of Mississippi State in second at 2-under 69.
The scoring average for the 6,348 layout was 75.10 for the 90 golfers.
LSU was T3 in the 17-team field in par three scoring at 1-under and solo second on the par 5s at 3-under par. The Tigers were tied for the round lead in birdies with 15, along with Arizona State.
There was some discussion of possibly playing both the second and third round of the tournament on Tuesday because of potential weather, as of late Monday afternoon tee times were announced for Tuesday’s second round with LSU going off at 9:20 a.m. again with Northwestern and Auburn.
The second round will be televised by The Golf Channel beginning at 1:30 p.m. CT and live scoring is available at scoreboard.clippd.com.
Darius Rucker Intercollegiate
Long Cove Golf Club – Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
First Round Team Results (Par 284)
1 Arkansas – 288 +4
2 LSU – 289 +5
3 Vanderbilt – 290 +6
T4 Texas – 291 +7
T4 South Carolina – 291 +7
T4 Wake Forest – 291 +7
T4 Arizona State – 291 +7
8 Auburn – 294 +10
9 Ohio State – 295 +11
10 Duke – 296 +12
T11 Georgia – 297 +13
T11 Mississippi State – 297 +13
T13 Alabama – 298 +14
T13 Northwestern – 298 +14
15 UCLA – 301 +17
16 Kentucky – 303 +19
17 Baylor – 304 +20
Individual Top 5 (Par 71)
1 Kendall Todd, Arkansas – 68 -3
T2 Ava Merrill, Vanderbilt – 69 -2
T2 Sam Whateley, Mississippi State – 69 -2
T4 Lauren Kim, Texas – 70 -1
T4 Paula Schultz-Hansson, Arizona State – 70 -1
T4 Carys Worby, Auburn – 70 -1
LSU Scores
T7 Josefin Widal – 71 E
T7 Elsa Svensson – 71 E
T23 Aine Donegan – 73 +2
T36 Rocio Tejedo – 74 +3
T51 Taylor Riley – 76 +5