BATON ROUGE – LSU freshman golfer Ryleigh Knaub continued her strong play with a 1-under 70 on a cold and windy day at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina to stand in a tie for fifth after one round of the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate Monday.
The tournament continues at the par 71 Long Cove Club on Tuesday with the second round which will be televised on The Golf Channel beginning at 1:30 p.m. CT.
LSU played its best golf as a team on the final nine holes of the day (Holes 1-9), finishing in a tie for fourth after 18 holes at 11-over par 295. The Tigers are tied with Wake Forest for the fourth spot. Only one team, leader Texas, was under par at 5-under 279.
Knaub started on the back nine holes for her round and turned in 2-under 33 with birdies on the par 4 11th (her second hold of the day) and the lone par 5 on the back nine, the 15th. The Florida native bogeyed back-to-back holes early in her final nine to get back to even, but put it back in red figures with a birdie at the second front nine par 5, the sixth, and then finished with three pars to bring home the round.
Farah O’Keefe, the No. 7 golfer in the NCAA rankings from Texas, posted a 7-under 64 to lead the tournament after one day. Lauren Kim of Texas is four shots back in second at 68 with Kajsalotta Svarvar of Ole Miss and Elin Pudas Remier of Florida State tied for third at 2-under 69. Maria Jose Marin of Arkansas and Karoline Tuttle of Georgia joined Knaub in the group T5 as seven golfers broke par on the 6,378-yard layout.
After Texas in the team standings comes Florida State at 3-over 287 with Auburn in third at 10-over 294. After Wake Forest and LSU is Duke and Ohio State at 12-over 296.
LSU’s Francesca Fiorellini brought it home in 2-over 73 with a late birdie that put her 1-under for the final nine holes, while Taylor Riley posted 3-over 74 also with a late birdie that put the senior 1-under for the last nine. Elsa Svensson was LSU’s other counting score at 7-over par 78.
Statistically on a day when the course played some 4.5 strokes over par, LSU was T3 on the par 3 holes at 3.10 and T6 in the 17-team field at 5.13 on the par 5 holes. LSU was fourth in the field in birdies with 11.
Individually, Riley was in a group T2 on the par 3 holes at 2.75, with Knaub T3 on the par 4 holes at 3.91.
“Just controlling the ball. The winds picking up, the temperatures dropping as the day goes on and getting the right distances,” LSU Coach Garrett Runion said on a post-round Golf Channel interview. “They’re just awkward shots with the left to right wind and it just makes it hard to control the ball.
On his team’s day, Runion said: “The motto (Monday) was just keep fighting. And if you look at our final five (holes) we played that under par, and it really helped us move up the leaderboard at the end of the day.”
LSU will be off the first tee on Tuesday at 9:20 a.m. CT with Northwestern and Auburn. Live scoring can be found at scoreboard.clippd.com.
Darius Rucker Intercollegiate
Long Cove Club – Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
First Round Team Results – Par 284
1 No. 9 Texas – 279 -5
2 No. 26 Florida State – 287 +3
3 No. 25 Auburn – 294 +10
T4 No. 35 LSU – 295 +11
T4 No. 6 Wake Forest – 295 +11
T6 No. 12 Duke – 296 +12
T6 No. 41 Ohio State – 296 +12
8 No. 20 Northwestern – 297 +13
9 No. 8 Arkansas – 298 +14
T10 Alabama – 299 +15
T10 No. 14 Vanderbilt – 299 +15
T12 No. 23 Arizona – 300 +16
T12 No. 15 Ole Miss – 300 +16
14 No. 34 Kentucky – 301 +17
15 Georgia – 303 +19
16 No. 18 South Carolina – 304 +20
17 No. 21 Arizona State – 305 +21
Individual Top 5 (Par 71)
1 No. 7 Farah O’Keefe, Texas – 64 -7
2 No. 31 Lauren Kim, Texas – 68 -3
T3 No. 43 Kajsalotta Svarvar, Ole Miss – 69 -2
T3 Elin Pudas Remier, Florida State – 69 -2
T5 No. 1 Maria Jose Marin, Arkansas – 70 -1
T5 Karoline Tuttle, Georgia – 70 -1
T5 Ryleigh Knaub, LSU – 70 -1
LSU Scores
T5 Ryleigh Knaub – 70 -1
T19 Francesca Fiorellini – 73 +2
T27 Taylor Riley – 74 +3
T64 Elsa Svensson – 78 +1
T86 Rocio Tejedo – 83 +12