BELLEAIR, Florida – The No. 11 LSU women’s golf team and the other 15 teams in the Southeastern Conference return for a second year here starting on Monday for the 2025 SEC Women’s Golf Championships at the prestigious Pelican Golf Club.
This old-school open layout, which also plays host the LPGA’s Annika Tournament in fall, became the home of the event last year as the league looked to move the championships back a few days to avoid a quick turnaround for a number of golfers after the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. This year, the event added a few more days behind the ANWA, moving it closer to next week’s NCAA field announcement and will play a Monday through Friday schedule to determine its champion.
Last year, LSU made it into match play at the conclusion of the 54 holes of stroke play with a tremendous 2-under final round on the par 70 layout of 282 which moved the Tigers past two teams into the match play field with a 54-hole total of 861 (21-over par).
In match play, the Tigers defeated top seed South Carolina, 3-2-0, before falling to Mississippi State, 3-1-1.
LSU is one of three teams that has advanced to match play each of the last four years along with South Carolina and Auburn. Mississippi State, Vandy and Ole Miss have been in match play three-of-the-last four years.
LSU in the last four years has advanced to the semifinals each year and in 2022 won the championship match for its first title in 30 years.
Two LSU players will be returning to Pelican as senior Aine Donegan and junior Taylor Riley both were a part of the Tiger team a season ago. Also, now the coaches are familiar with the layout.
“Last year was our first time here,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion. “So there’s a lot more trying to figure out and how to play it. This course can set up in several different ways. The wind is a big part of the defense here. So getting used to where to hit the ball, what to hit off the tee, things like that. There is a sense of familiarity coming back. We had good success here, making the semifinals.
“It was fun during the practice round (Sunday) where some players were saying, ‘I remember I had a good shot here. I remember I made a birdie here.’ So that’s always a good thing. But the course is in great shape. The greens are great. They are fast and rolling good and it’s nice to be back at Pelican”
In the national Scoreboard by Clippd performance rankings, Arkansas is No. 2, South Carolina No. 4, Texas No. 6, then the Tigers at No. 11. Auburn comes in at No. 14, Texas A&M No. 16, with Ole Miss 18, Mississippi State 20 and Vanderbilt at 21. Florida is No. 24 before a break back to Tennessee at 34 and Oklahoma at 36.
Texas and Oklahoma will make their SEC Championships debut in this tournament.
Rounding out the league teams and their rankings – Kentucky No. 42, Alabama No. 49, Georgia No. 54 and Missouri No. 68.
Joining Donegan and Riley will be senior Elsa Svensson, who as a freshman played on the championship SEC team in 2022. Two others will be making their SEC Championship debuts – freshmen Rocio Tejedo and Josefin Widal.
This was the lineup that came from behind in the final nine holes to tie South Carolina and win on the fifth player tiebreaker for the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in March. The team is coming off a very good third in the Clemson Invitational, shooting a three-day total of 26-under par.
LSU has three players in the top 100 in the Scoreboard rankings with Tejedo at No. 19, Donegan at 57 and Widal at 94. Widal, a freshman from Sweden, has risen from 394 in the rankings on Feb. 5 to her present rankings. Tejedo has had a solid season and is coming off competing in her second start in the ANWA.
The goal remains the same in this postseason event – finish in the top eight after 54 holes of stroke play to advance to match play which will determine the league championship later in the week.
The Tigers will be off in the first wave off the 10th tee with Auburn and Texas A&M at 8:10 a.m. ET (7:10 a.m. Baton Rouge time). If it is similar to Sunday’s practice round, the day started with comfortable temperatures and a slight breeze before wind conditions came up in the early afternoon.
At tee off time, the temperature is supposed to be in the low 60s with wins out of the ESE at less than 5 miles an hour. In the afternoon, the temperature is expected to get into the upper 70s with winds around 8-10 miles an hour out of the Southwest.
Runion thought it might be an advantage going off No. 10 early. That would mean playing the difficult par 4 18th hole before the winds get at their max.
“The eighteenth hole is a tough hole,” he said. “Last year, into the win, there were some big numbers there. Just a difficult hole. So I think going off the back and playing some of those holes before the wind picks up is a big advantage. There are a lot of birdies on all these holes and a lot of kind of big numbers waiting too. So I do like that we are first off 10. We earned that spot to go off early with our play all year and hopefully we can take that and use that to our advantage and get off to a good start.”
Live scoring for the SEC Women’s Championship will be on Golfstat on the 2025 SEC Women’s Championship – Stroke Play tab.