BATON ROUGE – After nearly three months off the LSU women’s golf team opens its spring season on Sunday in the annual Puerto Rico Classic at the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
The tournament, which is hosted annually by Purdue at the course that later each year holds a PGA Tournament in March, will try to play 36 holes on Sunday because of weather concerns Monday and Tuesday.
Besides host Purdue and LSU, the field includes (Scoreboard NCAA rankings listed where applicable): Arkansas (4), Furman, Georgia Southern, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Minnesota, Michigan State, Michigan, North Carolina (14), North Florida, North Texas Northwestern (20), Ole Miss (15), UNCW and Vanderbilt (10).
For the Tigers, it is the start of a five-tournament regular season that hopefully will direct them toward a sixth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Women’s Championship in Carlsbad, California.
“It’s always nice to start the spring off somewhere tropical and that’s exactly what we’re doing for the third year in a row going back to Puerto Rico,” said LSU Women’s Golf Coach Garrett Runion. “It’s a place we’ve had some success and are getting more comfortable with. This will be our 5th different line up in as many tournaments. I am very optimistic with this group, after not having the fall we all had hoped for, they put in some work over the break and have come back with a new level of focus. Our practices have been very competitive and productive. I know what this group is capable of doing individually; we just need to piece it together as a group and we will be able to accomplish some pretty impressive things.”
LSU’s lineup will include Francesca Fiorellini, the sophomore transfer from UCLA, who in the fall for the Tigers had a top five in posting a stroke average of 70.56. Sophomore Rocio Tejedo, who played in one event in the fall, will be in the lineup along with seniors Taylor Riley (71.08) and Elsa Svensson (71.92). Freshman Ryleigh Knaub and Lucia Iraola will also play for the Tigers along with another sophomore Josephine Widal.
In mid-February, LSU will make a stop in Melbourne, Florida for the Moon Golf Invitational (Feb. 15-17), before the traditional March start in the nationally-televised Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in Hilton Head, South Carolina (March 1-3).
LSU’s other stops in March will be at the Betsy Rawls in Auston and The Clemson Invitational at Sunset, South Carolina.
The Southeastern Conference Championship return to Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, April 17-21.
Play begins at 6:30 a.m. CT on Sunday and live scoring can be found at scoreboard.clippd.com. The Grand Reserve Golf Club will play at par 72 and 6,305 yards.