BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s golf team is back to action for the first time in October as they begin play in the inaugural Haskins Intercollegiate golf event in Columbus, Georgia at the Country Club of Columbus.
The historic course will play to a distance of 6,158 yards and a par of 72.
The elite field, including LSU, also has: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Augusta, Furman, Mercer, Middle Tennessee State, Ohio State, Pepperdine, SMU, UNC Wilmington and USC Upstate.
The event, hosted by Golfweek, and is part of the Haskins Foundation which awards the ANNIKA Award and Haskins Award for top college golfers. The tournament extends the organization’s commitment to women’s collegiate golf and joins a spring event for men that is held in Augusta on the eve of The Masters. Players will compete at the historic home of the Haskins and ANNIKA Awards on a Donald Ross-designed course with a longstanding connection to award namesake Fred Haskins.
The 13-team field spans eight conferences and gives the Haskins Intercollegiate a national footprint. Middle Tennessee State earned the final invitation through the Golfweek/Stifel Spring Challenge; the remaining teams, including #5 ranked Auburn and #12 Arkansas, were selected for the inaugural field, several of whom have had ANNIKA Award and Haskins Award recipients (Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Furman, LSU, Pepperdine).
The tournament honors the late Brian Stubbs, who spent 13 years as Executive Director of the Haskins Foundation before his shocking death in May of this year. Stubbs traveled throughout the country to meet players and coaches, display the Haskins and ANNIKA Award trophies, encourage broad participation in award voting and build relationships across programs of every size.
LSU’s entire team will participate in the event with juniors Rocio Tejedo and Francesca Fiorellini, sophomores Lucia Iraola and Ryleigh Knaub and freshman Raegan Denton on the five-player team competition. Junior Josefin Widal and freshman Victoria Kristensen will play as individual in the field.
In LSU’s last tournament, the Golfweek Red Sky Classic, Knaub posted a third-place finish and Denton posted a T5 finish for the Tigers. Through two events, Knaub is averaging 70.50, while Tejedo is at 70.83 and Denton at 71.00.
The teams will play 36 holes on Monday in a shotgun start and then a final round on Tuesday. The Monday play begins at 7:30 a.m. CT with live scoring available at Golfstat.com on the Haskins Intercollegiate tab. LSU will play with Ohio State and a group of the individual entries starting on hole 15-18.