LSU Women's Golf Ends Season With T10 Finish In NCAA Championships

CARLSBAD, California – The LSU women’s golf team’s attempt to make match play for the second straight year came up just a bit short Monday afternoon, as the Tigers finished T10 in the final stroke play round of the NCAA Women’s Golf Championships at OMNI La Costa Resort & Spa famed North Course.

The Tigers posted the fourth lowest final round of the day as they tried to make up an eight-shot deficit, starting the day in 13th place at 16-over par after making the top 15 cut for the fifth straight season, one of just four teams to make the top 15 cut each of the last five years.

LSU finished at 1-over par 289, tying its fourth lowest single round in NCAA Championships history. The Tigers finished 72 holes with a total score of 1,169, the third lowest 72-hole total in an NCAA Championship for the Tigers (All three scores have come in the last three seasons). LSU finished two shots out of the coveted eighth place number to advance to match play, tying with South Carolina for 10th.

The Tigers made a good run at the eighth spot, turning the front nine in 2-under par with Rocio Tejedo and Taylor Riley both at 1-under 35 and Aine Donegan and Josefin Widal at even par 36.

LSU then opened the back nine by playing the par 5 10th, the par 4 11th and the par 3 12th in 3-under par to get to 5-under for the day and 11-over par, one shot off the eighth spot then held by South Carolina at 10-over par.

But LSU unfortunately had to count five bogeys on the par 4 13, 14 and the difficult 15th which is surrounded by water, bringing LSU back a few strokes. The Tigers’ Donegan and Widal both posted birdies at 17 to keep LSU with a chance but the Tigers counted three bogeys on the difficult par 5 18th.

“We got off to a great start to give us a shot,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion. “(Sunday) we played the back nine three under par to get into this position and today we played the back nine 3-over to fall a few short. I’m proud of the way they fought to make it interesting. There’s a lot of teams that would love to be in our spot. The game always seems to come down to one or two strokes and a putt here and there. Aine hitting the pin on 15 and coming back in the bunker was an unfortunate break, but she rallied and birdied 17 and par at 18. We had a few good looks on 18 just didn’t fall. That’s golf.”

Aine Donegan in her final collegiate round after three years at LSU came home with an even par 72 with three birdies. Donegan is one of 12 LSU players to have made three NCAA Championship appearances in her career. The native of Ireland made two U.S. Women’s Open appearances in her career and was on the victorious GB&I team that defeated the Americans in the Curtis Cup.

Donegan was also one of 13 players in the field to record an eagle during the tournament.

SEC Freshman of the Year Rocio Tejedo posted a 1-under par 71 on the day, making four birdies in her round. Tejedo had six top five finishes in her first year with the Tigers.

LSU also counted a 1-over 73 from both San Diego native junior Taylor Riley and freshman Josephine Widal.

Stanford will be the No. 1 qualifier for the match play quarterfinals beginning Tuesday morning at 27-under par 1,125, 21 shots ahead of second seed Oregon at 1,146 (6 under par) and third seed Northwestern finished at 2-over par 1,154. The fourth seed will be Florida State at 3-over 1,155, followed by Southern California at 1,156 (4-over) in fifth. Arkansas (1,158) is sixth followed by Texas (1,160). Virginia ended up moving into the final spot at 1,167 (15-over par).

Arkansas’ Maria Jose Marin won the individual title with a 12-under par total of 276 (70-72-65-69), two shots better than Mirabel Ting of Florida State who posted 10-under 278 (70-71-69-68).

The Tigers finished eighth in the field in par 3 scoring for 72 holes at 3.10 and T9 in the original 30 team field at 4.11. LSU did not have its usual strong play on the par 5s, finishing 6th at 5.16 strokes. It was the scoring on the par 5s in the NCAA Columbus Regional that allowed LSU to rally to a qualifying position on the final day to get to Carlsbad.

LSU was 12th in birdies with 48 and T11 in pars with 229. Senior Elsa Svensson, who finished T30, at 3-over par 291, led the Tigers with 13 birdies over the four days.

Overall, as the golf season at LSU concludes, the Tigers had another strong year, a year that started with many outside the program wondering how this year’s LSU women’s golf team would perform.

“I think we surprised a lot of people with our play this year,” said Runion. “I think there were a lot of question marks around us with the big three leaving. I think I underestimated how much our players would have to listen to that going to different tournaments or different news outlets and people kind of assuming we weren’t going to be as good without those three. They did a good job of kind of turning the page and making this team their own. They had a great year. Runner-up at the East Lake Cup, won the Darius Rucker, a major, finished second at the stroke play at the SECC Championship and then to finish 10th, I think that’s extremely good.

“That’s all you can ask for, is having one of the best rounds of the day to give yourself a shot. We fell on the wrong side of the cut line but hopefully we learned a lot and we just didn’t have a few fall for us this time around. I’m proud of the way they played and kept fighting and represented themselves, LSU and the women’s golf program very well.”

NCAA WOMEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
Carlsbad, California – Omni La Costa Resort & Spa
Four-round team results – Par 288-1,152
Top eight advance to match play
NCAA Scoreboard Rankings Listed Next to School
1 #1 Stanford – 293-278-270-284 – 1,125 -27
2 #5 Oregon – 288-289-285-284 – 1,146 -6
3 #11 Northwestern – 291-285-280-298 – 1,154 +2
4 #4 Florida State – 295-284-288-288 – 1,155 +3
5 #9 Southern California – 292-287-285-292 – 1,156 +4
6 #2 Arkansas – 297-290-280-291 – 1,158 +6
7 #6 Texas – 288-293-288-291 – 1,160 +8
8 #10 Virginia – 294-293-289-291 – 1,167 +15
——–
9 #8 Arizona State – 288-294-294-293 – 1,168 +16
T10 #12 LSU – 293-297-290-289 – 1,169 +17
T10 #3 South Carolina – 297-286-289-297 – 1,169 +17
12 #28 UCLA – 295-294-293-289 – 1,171 +19
13 #31 Tennessee – 291-297-288-297 – 1,173 +21
14 #18 Mississippi State – 294-286-302-296 – 1,178 +26
15 #25 Oklahoma State – 284-297-297-302 – 1,180 +28

Individual Top 5 (Par 72-288)
1 #6 Maria Jose Marin, Arkansas – 70-72-65-69 – 276 -12
2 #1 Mirabel Ting, Florida State – 70-71-69-68 – 278 -10
3 #29 Kelly Xu, Stanford – 72-69-68-71 – 280 -8
4 Paula Martin Sampedro, Stanford – 73-68-67-73 – 281 -7
T5 Eila Galitsky, South Carolina – 71-68-75-68 – 282 -6
T5 Catherine Park, Southern California – 68-72-70-72 – 282 -6

LSU Scores
T30 Elsa Svensson – 68-72-70-81 – 291 +3
T34 Rocio Tejedo – 74-73-74-71 – 292 +4
T52 Taylor Riley – 75-77-72-73 – 297 +9
T67 Josefin Widal – 76-78-75-73 – 301 +13
T67 Aine Donegan – 76-75-78-72 – 301 +13