After ending strong with a second place finish at the Alamo Invitational, the LSU women’s golf team heads into its spring season ranked No. 23 in the Women’s Golf Coaches Association’s final coaches’ poll of the fall.
The Lady Tigers’ fall campaign saw two top-three team finishes and — for the first time in more than a decade — two Tigers individually won a fall tournament.
Junior Madelene Sagstrom shot 4-under-par to win the Fall Schooner Classic by two strokes over Kentucky’s Liz Breed. It was the first career win for the Enkoping, Sweden native and the first LSU women’s golf individual tournament win since Austin Ernst in the 2011-2012 season.
In that same month, senior Lindsay Gahm won for the first time in her LSU career, capturing the Alamo Invitational by one stroke. Gahm’s 11-under-par performance led LSU to a second place finish with a total score of 848, the lowest total of the fall season.
On day two of the Alamo Invitational, the Lady Tigers counted four under-par scores for a 9-under-par round of 279, the fourth lowest round in program history and the lowest round since September 2011. The 848 team tournament total landed them eight strokes behind the tournament champion No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners.
LSU freshman Caroline Nistrup is among Golf Digest’s Surprise Women’s College Golfers of the Mid-Season. The Dragoer, Denmark native shined as she posted one of the best freshman fall seasons in LSU history.
Nistrup leads the team in stroke average for the fall season with 71.00 for 12 rounds and posted three top-7 finishes in the four fall tournaments. She shot two 5-under-par rounds in her first collegiate season.
In her best fall outing, sophomore Nadine Dreher’s 2-over-par finish at the Alamo Invitational gave LSU the second place edge over No. 3 Arkansas.
Senior Ali Lucas shot her season’s best 10-over-par at the Schooner Fall Classic, finishing No. 22 of 78 golfers to propel the lady Tigers to a third place spot.
The Lady Tigers are one of seven Southeastern Conference teams ranked in the top 25.
And in her 29th season as LSU women’s head golf coach, Karen Bahnsen added to the impressive LSU roster by signing two players for the 2014-2015 season-Sydney Cavin of The Dunham School and Claudia De Antonio of Plantation, Fla.
The Lady Tigers return to action Feb. 23 at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate Tournament at the English Turn Country Club in New Orleans.