LSU Women's Golf Team Looks To Gain A Spot In Final Regional Round Wednesday

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The LSU women’s golf team finds themselves in a similar situation to two years ago in an NCAA women’s golf regional and will try to respond in the same way Wednesday when the final round is played at the Scarlet Course at Ohio State University.

In 2023, at PGA National in Florida, the Tigers found themselves T7 and five shots of the fifth and final qualifying spot for the NCAA Championship. LSU rallied in the final nine holes to earn that fifth qualifying spot for the NCAA Championship.

After Tuesday’s second round, the Tigers, playing in conditions they hadn’t seen in a college tournament in a while – low 50 temperatures and a steady, windy rain that left players miserable – must rally again to make the NCAA Championships for what would be a school record fifth consecutive year.

It appears that four teams in the NCAA Columbus Regional will be aiming for the final fifth spot in qualifying among fifth place SMU (+16), LSU and Kent State (T6, +17) and Houston (8, +20).

The Tigers started the day in third place teeing off just before the rains hit Columbus. An already saturated course took on that much more water and that combined with a cold wind blowing, caused the scores to skyrocket as the field of 66 players averaged 77.36, almost four strokes higher than the first round on Monday.

Only two teams kept their score in the play 5, count 4 format to under double figures over par with the Tigers coming in at 21-over 309. That put LSU at 17-over par 593 for two days.

“It was a challenging day for sure,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion. “It’s been a while since we have played in 50-degree rain for the entire 18 holes. I thought they managed the front nine fairly well, and then we turned to the back nine and did not play holes 10, 11 and 12 very well. We were 12-over on those three holes. I’d equate that to having three turnovers on your side of the field in football. But the ladies kept fighting. The scores were high for everybody and they just kept fighting.”

Aine Donegan, the senior from Ireland, led LSU with a 3-over par round of 75. LSU’s other senior Elsa Svensson posted a 5-over 77 and freshman Josefin Widal counted a 6-over 78. LSU’s fourth score on the board was a 7-over 79 from Taylor Riley.

Svensson, at 2-over par 146 for 36 holes, is T10 in the individual standings (69-77), while Donegan is T18 at 3-over 147 (72-75).

Lyla Louderbaugh of Kansas is the individual leader at 5-under par 139 after a round of 70 on Tuesday, following a 69 on Monday. She is two shots clear of Kendall Todd of Arkansas and Emily Odwin of SMU at 3-under par 141.

The best news for LSU is that the chance to move up is available with a final round on Wednesday.

“That’s the good news is that there is another round (Wednesday),” said Coach Runion. “Our final round has been our lowest average round all year, and they’ve done a good job all year of kind of bouncing back. I’ve talked to them about that not only from tournament to tournament, but from round to round. And we talked about Rory McIlroy, when he won the Masters. He hit the wedge in the water on 13 and still just kept fighting.

“So we got away from our blueprint of being disciplined and keeping the big numbers off the scorecard. Today was challenging, but you know (Wednesday) we need to come out and be aggressive with the mindset of, we’ve got to take it. No matter where we could have been in the standings, we have to play well (Wednesday). It was a challenging day for sure, but one that I think they’ll learn from and be ready to go.”

The team leader is Arkansas at 4-over par 580 (282-298), with UNLV a surprising second at 5-over 581 (287-294). Third belongs to Kansas one more shot back at 6-over 582 (289-293), tied with first round leader Ohio State (279-303). Those four teams appear to have the inside track to their qualifying position.

It is 10 more shots to SMU, which holds what would be the final qualifying spot at 16-over 592 (289-303) with LSU and Kent State one more back at 593.

Ohio State, SMU and LSU will all play together in the 8 a.m. grouping off the 10th tee on Wednesday. The weather forecast is calling for a dry day with a mix of clouds and sun and a high of 74.

Besides the top five teams advancing to the national championship, the top individual not on one of the five teams will also advance.

Live scoring can be found at scoreboard.clippd.com and the Columbus Regional tab.

NCAA COLUMBUS REGIONAL
Columbus, Ohio – Ohio State Golf Course (Scarlet)
Second Round Team Results (Par 288-576)
Top 50 Teams In NCAA Scoreboard Rankings Listed
1 No. 2 Arkansas – 282-298 – 580 +4
2 No. 39 UNLV – 287-294 – 581 +5
T3 No. 23 Kansas – 289-293 – 582 +6
T3 No. 14 Ohio State – 279-303 — 582
5 No. 35 SMU – 289-303 – 592 +16
T6 No. 10 LSU – 284-309 – 593 +17
T6 Kent State – 287-306 – 593 +17
8 No. 26 Houston – 295-301 – 596 +20
9 Xavier – 289-310 – 599 +23
10 Illinois – 289-311 – 600 +24
11 Illinois State – 299-318 – 617 +41
12 Oakland – 310-324 – 634 +58

Top 10 Individuals (Par 72-144)
Top 125 in NCAA Scoreboard rankings listed
1 Lula Louderbaugh, Kansas – 69-70 – 139 -5
T2 No. 14 Kendall Todd, Arkansas – 67-74 – 141 -3
T2 Emily Odwin, SMU – 69-72 – 141 -3
T4 No. 72 Nellie Ong, Ohio State – 66-77 – 143 -1
T4 No. 75 Moa Svedenskiold, Houston – 71-72 – 143 -1
T4 No. 84 Toa Yokoyama, UNLV – 72-71 – 143 -1
7 Vanessa Zhang, Harvard – 72-72 – 144 E
T8 Isabel Brozena, Xavier – 67-78 – 145 +1
T8 Gracie Larsen, Kent State – 71-74 – 145 +1
T10 Yurang Li, Illinois – 69-77 – 146 +2
T10 No. 94 Elsa Svensson, LSU – 69-77 – 146 +2
T10 No. 4 Maria Jose Marin, Arkansas – 70-76 – 146 +2
T10 No. 45 Clarisa Temelo, Arkansas – 71-75 – 146 +2
T10 No. 118 Mayumi Umezu, UNLV – 72-74 – 146 +2
T10 Aryn Matthews, Kent State – 72-74 – 146 +2
T10 McKenzi Hall, UNLV – 73-73 – 146 +2
T10 No. 11 Kary Hollenbaugh, Ohio State – 75-71 – 146 +2

LSU Scores
T10 Elsa Svensson – 69-77 – 146 +2
T18 Aine Donegan – 72-75 – 147 +3
T25 Rocio Tejedo – 69-80 – 149 +5
T41 Josefin Widal – 74-78 – 152 +8
T45 Taylor Riley – 74-79 – 153 +9