Guitar Trophy Returns To Baton Rouge As LSU Women's Golf Wins Darius Rucker Intercollegiate

BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s golf team is bringing back the guitar trophy from the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate to Baton Rouge after a furious back nine rally gets the Tigers their first title of the 2024-25 season on Wednesday with the Golf Channel cameras looking on.

It will be the second Rucker guitar the team has won in the last three years to be showcased in the LSU Golf House trophy case.

On a day when tee times were moved up and players endured two delays for weather, the timing worked out to allow the Golf Channel to showcase the leaders on the entire back nine of the difficult Long Cover Golf Club course in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

And what a show the home viewers and the large on-course gallery got. With one of the top fields in a regular season event taking part, three SEC teams (LSU, South Carolina, Arkansas all playing together) separated themselves from the field and put on a display of strong golf in sunny, but windy conditions once the weather cleared the area.

In the end, LSU and South Carolina would tie for the title at 11-over par 863 with LSU moving from third to first on the final day with a best round of the day of 2-over 286. Under tournament rules, LSU won the official title with the lowest drop scores from the three days in the play 5, count 4 format. LSU came in at 15-over par, one shot better than South Carolina.

The TIgers posted rounds of 289-288-286 for their 863, while the Gamecocks rounds were 291-282-290. Arkansas finished third four shots back at 15-over 867 (288-285-294) and then Wake Forest (871) and Arizona State (872) rounded out the top five.

“I just told them to be unflappable and expect anything,” Coach Garrett Runion told his team entering the final round. “Expect anything to happen with two delays and just keep fighting to the vey end. We kind of knew it would be a photo finish, and that’s what ended up happening. I’m just happy we’re on the correct side this time.”

It was the 15th title for Runion in his seventh season as head coach at LSU and it did come down to a photo finish even though it didn’t look like it heading to the final nine holes.

South Carolina had pulled out to a four-shot advantage but things quickly began to turn when Aine Donegan rolled in a 30-footer on the 10th right after Rocio Tejedo, playing in a group ahead, birdied the 12th. Freshman Josefin Widal was contributing birdies on two back-nine holes and Tejedo birdied the par 4 18th hole to get LSU back into a tie for the lead, shortly before Donegan put another long-range birdie in on the difficult par 3 17th hole that put LSU in a position to win the tournament.

LSU would play what Coach Runion refers to as “The Final Five” in three under par for the counting scores to keep pace with the Gamecocks who were trying to win the Rucker for the first time.

LSU, ranked 22nd in the Scoreboard by Clippd NCAA performance rankings, will finish tied as far as the rankings are concerned with No. 9 South Carolina but more importantly, the Tigers helped themselves by besting nine teams ranked ahead of them.

Individually, the Tigers got outstanding performances from senior Donegan and freshman Widal, who both scored under par rounds on a day when those scores were few. Widal posted 2-under 69 and Donegan a 1-under 70. The pair finished just outside the co-medalists but for both their best finish of the season.

Donegan, including the two back nine lengthy birdies, had four on her final day card and Widal had three on her scorecard. Widal moved up 11 spots on the final day while Donegan moved up four.

“What was most impressive about their game today was that they shot under par out here. That was impressive,” said Coach Runion. “I mean, the beginning was some rain, wind and I was just very, very impressed that they kept the competitive toughness, fought to the very end and were able to finish the round for us.”

Donegan and Widal finished with two of the three under par rounds on the final day. For 54 holes they come in at even par 213. Donegan shot rounds of 73-70-70 and Widal 71-73-69. Kendall Todd of Arkansas and Louise Rydqvist of South Carolina posted the winning individual scores of 1-under 212.

Also making a move on the final day was Tejedo, who moved up 13 spots to T17 with her five-birdie even par round of 71. She finished at 6-over par 220.

Taylor Riley’s counting score for the day was 5-over 76. Elsa Svensson’s 78 was also important as her par on 18 proved the be the difference in the three-day tiebreaker of non-counting scores.

More importantly, the win signaled that LSU is still a team to be reckoned with in the women’s college golf landscape.

“We didn’t have our best finish last week,” Coach Runion said of the struggles at the Moon Golf Invitational. “I told them it’s how you respond and they responded very well here, and I mean this is a major. This is almost a tour event. You look at all the people here, the Golf Channel. This is a big one. This is a special one to win and certainly gives us confidence going into the postseason.”

LSU is back in action starting March 17 for the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational.

DARIUS RUCKER INTERCOLLEGIATE
LONG COVE GOLF CLUB – HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA
FINAL TEAM RESULTS (Par 284-852)
1 LSU – 289-288-286 – 863 +11 ** (Tigers named champion on fifth score tiebreaker)
1 South Carolina – 291-282-290 – 863 +11
3 Arkansas – 288-285-294 – 867 +15
4 Wake Forest — 291-291-289 – 871 +19
5 Arizona State — 291-288-293 –872 +20
6 Texas — 291-293-297 – 881 +29
6 Northwestern – 298-288-295 – 881 +29
8 Vanderbilt – 290-293-301 – 884 +32
8 Auburn – 294-291-299 – 884 +32
10 Ohio State – 295-299-291 – 885 +33
11 Alabama – 298-296-298 – 892 +40
12 Georgia – 297-300-298 – 895 +43
13 Duke – 296-306-300 – 902 +50
14 UCLA – 301-303-305 – 909 +57
15 Baylor – 304-304-303 – 911 +59
15 Mississippi State – 297-304-310 – 911 +59
17 Kentucky 303-309-300 – 912 +60

Individual Top 5 (Par 71-213)
T1 Kendall Todd – Arkansas 68-72-72 – 212 -1
T1 Louise Rydqvist – South Carolina 72-69-71 – 212 -1
T3 Aine Donegan – LSU 73-70-70 – 213 E
T3 Josefin Widal – LSU 71-73-69 – 213 E
T3 Lauren Kim – Texas 70-72-71 – 213 E

LSU Scores
T3 Aine Donegan – 73-70-70 – 213 E
T3 Josefin Widal – 71-73-69 – 213 E
T17 Rocio Tejedo – 74-74-71 – 219 +6
T29 Elsa Svensson – 71-73-78 – 222 +9
T40 Taylor Riley – 76-72-76 – 224 +11