No. 11 LSU Women's Golf Posts Four Under-Par Rounds In Clemson Opening Round

BATON ROUGE – The No. 11 LSU women’s golf team posted four under par scores to open the Clemson Invitational at The Reserve at Lake Keowee in Sunset, South Carolina, on Friday.

The Tigers posted a solid opening round of 8-under par 280, the lowest under par round of the season and the second lowest aggregate team score in the play 5, count 4 format.

LSU’s 280 is good enough for fifth place, five shots out of the lead of No. 24 Ohio State at 275. No. 33 SMU is second at 276 with Tennessee (No. 32) third at 278 with No. 2 Arkansas in fourth at 279.

It is five strokes back from LSU to Louisville at 285, the last team under par, in sixth with Miami in seventh at even par 288.

In a consistent day of scoring for the Tigers, junior Taylor Riley had four birdies in a 3-under par round of 69, while senior Aine Donegan (four birdies) and freshman Rocio Tejedo (four birdies) each posted 2-under 70 and senior Elsa Svensson had three birdies in a 1-under par round of 71.

Riley is T6 in the individual standings with Donegan and Tejedo at T15 and Svensson T21.

“It was a good first day. I’m very proud of the team for being really consistent,” said LSU women’s golf coach Garrett Runion. “I’ve always said that it’s hard to beat consistency; when you have four of your players shoot under par, that’s a great sign. Our drop score with Josefin (Widal) being two-over (par) is still really good. It was good to see Taylor (Riley) bounce back from a rough tournament last week and play a solid round of golf at 3-under 69. Having only two bogies as a team on the back nine was strong stuff. We had a relatively clean scorecard all day and that’s why we’re fifth on the team leaderboard.

“Our last two tournaments have been ‘hang on’ type tournaments where pars were really good, so it was good to come out to this tournament with favorable scoring conditions and go out and get a bunch of birdies. Everybody played some really solid and consistent golf, so hopefully we go out (Saturday) and keep our foot on the gas pedal and keep making birdies.”

The Tigers are tied for the tournament lead with play on the par four holes with Arkansas at 5-under par. LSU had 16 birdies and leads the field in pars with 65. LSU is second-to-last in bogeys for the first day with just eight.

LSU will be off in the first wave off hole No.1 on Saturday, playing with Louisville, Miami and Maryland.

Live scoring can be found on the Scoreboard by Clippd website and the Clemson Invitational tab.

Clemson Invitational
Sunset, South Carolina – The Reserve at Lake Keowee
First Round Team Results (Par 288)
1 No. 24 Ohio State — 275 -13
2 No. 33 SMU – 276 -12
3 No. 32 Tennessee – 278 -10
4 No. 2 Arkansas – 279 -9
5 No. 11 LSU – 280 -8
6 Louisville – 285 -3
7 Miami – 288 E
8 Maryland – 291 +3
9 No. 15 Ole Miss – 294 +6
10 No. 23 Michigan State – 295 +7
11 No. 38 Clemson – 296 +8
12 UNCW – 298 +10
13 Harvard – 301 +13
14 Penn State – 303 +15
15 Nebraska – 304 +16

Individual Top 5 (Par 72)
1 Martina Lopez Lanchares, Tennessee – 65 -7
2 No. 142 Celine Chen, SMU – 66 -6
3 No. 49 Clarisa Temelo, Arkansas – 68 -4
3 Emily Odwin, SMU – 68 -4
3 No. 22 Kary Hollenbaugh, Ohio State — 68 -4

LSU Scores
T6 Taylor Riley – 69 -3
T15 Aine Donegan – 70 -2
T15 Rocio Tejedo – 70 -2
T21 Elsa Svensson – 71 -1
T44 Josefin Widal – 74 +2
T78 Edit Hertzman – 79 +7