WACO, Texas – NCAA Championship play begins Monday at six sites around the country, including here for the LSU Tigers, as the NCAA Waco Women’s Golf Regional begins at the Ridgewood Country Club.
The 54-hole tournament, as well as the other regionals, will determine five teams from each that will advance to the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California later in May.
The LSU women’s golf team, ranked 36th in the NCAA/Scoreboard rankings, is the No. 6 team in the 12-team Waco field as the Tigers were named to an NCAA Regional field for the seventh straight season. The Tigers will be trying to extend their school record five straight advances to the Championship round.
Texas A&M (No. 4 national ranking) is the one seed followed by Oregon (8), Tennessee (16 SEC Champion), SMU (21), Baylor (26), LSU (36), TCU (42), Tulsa (49 American Champion), Colorado (51), North Arizona (77 Big Sky Champion), Tarleton State (151 WAC Champion) and Prairie View (244 SWAC Champion).
SMU, host Baylor and LSU will play together in the opening round on Monday at 8 a.m. off the 10th teed.
The Ridgewood Country Club will play at a par of 70 and a maximum yardage of 6,094. The Country Club was established in 1947 around Lake Waco. The primary layout of the course was established in 1963 after the lake was expanded and the course was redesigned. Tee boxes and greens were redone along with new bunkers were put in during a renovation that concluded in December 2023.
The Tigers and the other players had a chance to play the course on Sunday with temperatures in the low 80s on Monday, mid-80s on Tuesday and near 90 for the final round on Wednesday. There is expected to be some weather on Sunday night prior to Monday’s opening round.
“I think it’s a great venue,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion. “It seems like it’s going to be a good regional test. I thin it will separate the field, which is what we want. We’ve got a little bit of weather (Sunday night) and that will make it a little more challenging which is good. But overall, I like the course. More importantly, the players like the course. It’s a lot of similarities to back home with the heat, the Bermuda grass, and in all those things we have back home that makes us feel comfortable on the course.”
LSU’s lineup is expected to be what the Tigers used in the SEC Championship with seniors Taylor Riley and Elsa Svensson, sophomores Francesca Fiorellini and Rocio Tejedo and All-SEC freshman team member Ryleigh Knaub.
Three golfers are in the top 100 in the NCAA/Scoreboard individual rankings with Svensson 63, Fiorellini 70 and Knaub at 93.
Knaub leads the team in stroke average at 72.17 with Fiorellini at 72.37 and Svensson at 72.70.
Coach Runion knows a good first round is step one to qualifying for the national championship tourney.
“Getting off to a good start … the first round is just so important,” said Coach Runion. “Whenever you are playing from behind, it adds more pressure and you don’t play as free and loose. I want them to be free. I want them to be loose and play their game. It’s hard to fight those urges to want to press and try to do too much when you don’t need to. We’d like to get off to a good start. I like our tee time – teeing off the back nine early, and hopefully we can get off to the start we want.”
The other regionals will take place at the same time at University of Michigan Golf Course in Ann Arbor, Michigan; UNC Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; University of Louisville Golf Club in Simpsonville, Kentucky; Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, California; and, Seminole Legacy Golf Club in Tallahassee, Florida.
The 54-hole event in Waco runs through Wednesday with live scoring at scoreboard.clippd.com. Scoreboard has teamed with Babygrande Golf, which will be streaming for a cost live play and highlights from all six regional sites.