The No. 16 LSU women’s golf team is set to compete against an elite list of opponents from around the nation beginning Feb. 22 in the three-day Allstate Sugar Bowl Challenge. The tournament is hosted by Tulane at English Turn Golf and Country Club in New Orleans.
LSU (57-18-0) will be competing against 17 teams, four of which rank in the top 10, nine in the top 25 and 13 in the top 50.
The Tigers are regathering themselves after a second-place finish in Puerto Rico from Feb 15-17 and hope to continue on the path they started in their debut spring tournament.
“It was a good place for us to start,” said LSU coach Karen Bahnsen. “There are some things to work on. We put ourselves in a chance to win. It was a good place for us to finishing, knocking the rust off.”
LSU ended the Lady Puerto Rico Classic sitting in second at 19-over par. The team shot a 276 on Sunday, a tournament low Monday with a 292 and posted a 295 on the final day, but 883 was a promising score for the Tigers to lean on going forward this season.
LSU was carried by strong performances from junior Elise Bradley, sophomore Caroline Nistrup and senior Madelene Sagstrom. Each of three earned scores to plant themselves as three of the top 20 individual performers from the past week.
Bradley positioned herself in third place at 1-under par, continuing to provide sound performances for the Tigers. She posted an overall score of 215 along with Sagstrom, who mirrored her score.
Sagstrom and Bradley were the only Tigers to crack the top ten. Caroline Nistrup trailed the pair by seven strokes to finish her week at 222, 6-over par.
“The team shot the ball very well,” Bahnsen said. “I was very proud of our play in Puerto Rico. We could have just knocked in a couple more putts.”
LSU made a final-day push to slide past Iowa State by one stroke. The Tigers finished the weekend seven shots behind the tournament winner, Arkansas, which finished at 876 (12-over par).
Completing the Lady Tigers’ lineup was junior Nadine Dreher and sophomore Carly Goldstein, who shot 238 and 232, respectively.
Defending national champion USC won last year’s event, which was reduced to a 36-hole championship due to poor weather conditions. This year, thunderstorms are again set to cover the course beginning Sunday.