Tigers Finish With Strong Final Round To Leave Colorado With Third Place Finish

BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s golf team, led by 5-under par rounds from senior Taylor Riley and Elsa Svensson, posted a strong 13-under par round Wednesday to finish in third place in the Golfweek Red Sky Classic at the Red Sky Ranch and Golf Club in Wolcott, Colorado.

The Tigers posted its second double digit under par round of the tournament, its third in two events and the 13-under par score of 275 is tied for the fifth lowest in school history. LSU finished 54-holes at 19-under par 845, tied for the ninth lowest 54-hole score in school history for women’s golf.

LSU had rounds of 274-296-275 over the par 72, 6,376-yard venue. Southern California took the lead in the second round and finished at 45-under par 819 to win the event (276-276-267), while Pepperdine came home second at 28-under 836 (278-286-272). The Tigers finished 10 shots up on Arizona in fourth at 9-under 855. Kansas was the only other team under par for 54 holes in the 20-team event at 1-under 863.

Riley and Svensson led a day with three under par individual scores and no LSU score about even par for the five Tigers.

Riley, from San Diego, bogeyed the opening hole of the round and then proceeded to run off birdies on the par 5 2nd, the par 4 3rd and 4th and par 5 5th to turn in 3-under 33. Two birdies over the final nine holes brought her home at 5-under 67, moving her up to a T12 finish at 4-under par 212 (71-74-67).

Svensson, from Sweden, had a clean card for her 67, posting birdies on the 4th and 6th holes and then finished her rounds with birdies on the par 4 16th, the par 3 17th and the par 5 18th hole. Svensson moved up 13 places on the final day to finish in a tie for 20th at 1-under 215 (72-76-67).

Sophomore Francesca Fiorellini finished up a good week at Red Sky with a second straight even par round of 72 (three birdies) and finished 54 holes at 9-under par 207 (63-72-72). But the native of Italy will forever have the memory of being the first LSU women’s golfer to ever shoot 9-under 63 in collegiate competition as she did on Monday with her nine-birdie round.

Fiorellini finished T5, four shots out of co-winners Kylie Chong and Jasmine Koo of Southern California at 13-under 203. Chong posted rounds of 66-70-67 and Koo 67-68-68.

Freshman Ryleigh Knaub in her first collegiate event, rallied well after some struggled in the second round, posting a 3-under 69 on Wednesday. Knaub had seven birdies in her rounds as she finished at 4-over 220 (68-83-69).

Sophomore Josefin Widal also shot even par 72 for the Tigers in the final round.

LSU had 26 birdies in the final round among the five players and 61 for the three days, second in the field. Fiorellini had the most for the Tigers with 16 while Knaub had 15 and Riley 12.

Fiorellini led the field in play on the par 3 holes at 2.67 for the three rounds. LSU as a team was third in par 3 scoring at 2.95 and third in par 5 scoring at 4.82 (11-under par).

LSU will be back in action Oct. 6-7 at famed Medinah Country Club for the Illini Women’s Invitational at Medinah, the third of four tournaments in the fall portion of the season.

GOLFWEEK RED SKY CLASSIC
Red Sky Ranch and Golf Club – Wolcott, Colorado
Final Team Results – Par 288-864
1 Southern California – 276-276-267 – 819 -45
2 Pepperdine – 278-286-272 – 836 -28
3 LSU – 274-296-275 – 845 -19
4 Arizona – 287-292-276 – 855 – 9
5 Kansas – 299-290-274 – 863 -1
6 Miami – 292-298-280 – 870 +6
T7 UC Irvine – 291-297-290 – 878 +14
T7 Northern Arizona – 297-295-286 – 878 +14
T7 Eastern Michigan – 307-284-287 – 878 +14
T10 Sacramento State – 294-303-289 – 886 +22
T10 UNC Asheville – 305-296-285 – 896 +22
T10 Mercer – 295-298-293 – 886 +22
13 Charlotte — 294-295-299 – 888 +24
14 Boise State – 292-308-292 – 892 +28
15 Denver – 288-305-301 – 894 +30
16 New Mexico State – 300-310-296 – 906 +42
17 Campbell — 297-315-295 – 907 +43
18 Jacksonville State — 312-302-299 – 913 +49
19 East Tennessee State – 311-307-301 – 919
20 Little Rock – 308-313-304 – 925 +61

Individual Top 5 (Par 72-216)
T1 Kylie Chong, Southern California – 66-70-67 – 203 -13
T1 Jasmine Koo, Southern California – 67-68-68 – 203 -13
3 Kylee Choi, Pepperdine – 71-69-65 – 205 -11
4 Charlotte Cack, Arizona – 69-71-66 – 206 -10
T5 Francesca Fiorellini, LSU – 63-72-72 – 207 -9
T5 Savannah de Bock, Eastern Michigan – 71-67-69 – 207 -9

LSU Scores
T5 Francesca Fiorellini – 63-72-72 – 207 -9
T12 Taylor Riley – 71-74-67 – 212 -4
T20 Elsa Svensson – 72-76-67 – 215 -1
T35 Ryleigh Knaub – 68-83-69 – 220 +4
T44 Josefin Widal – 77-74-72 – 223 +7