The LSU women’s golf team hopes to gain more momentum early in the season when it travels to Franklin, Tenn., this weekend for the Mason Rudolph Championship at the Vanderbilt Traditions Club.
The Lady Tigers, ranked 16th in the latest Golfweek Sagarin collegiate poll, will square off with another impressive field of competition following the team’s second place finish at last week’s NCAA Fall Preview in Bryan, Texas.
Fourteen of the top 20 teams in the country will compete at the tournament, including No.4 Alabama, the NCAA Fall Preview champions who finished one stroke ahead of the Lady Tigers. Southeastern Conference foes Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Vanderbilt are also part of the field.
LSU and Alabama will be paired together for the first round, which tees off on Friday at 8:00 a.m.
“We want to move forward from the Preview and continue to play steady golf and to play with the same urgency that we showed in the first tournament,” said LSU coach Karen Bahnsen. “This is another good field and it will be fun to play with our SEC friends in the first round. But it’s all about us, playing our game and not worrying what everyone else is doing on the course in the first round.”
Bahnsen also said course conditions will provide a tough test her players’ accuracy. The 6,281-yard, par 72 course has played softly during practice rounds, providing opportunities for golfers to aim for the pin on some holes.
But the course has struggled with the summer heat, paving the way for faster, more difficult greens.
“It’s a placement kind of golf course. You just have to put yourself in a good position off the tee to set yourself up, and you have to be smart with your approach shots to the green because there are certain areas you want to avoid,” Bahnsen said.
Leading the Lady Tigers will be senior Megan McChrystal, who earned Golf World and Golfweek National Golfer of the Week awards after winning the individual title at the NCAA Fall Preview where she shot a school-record 10-under par 206 and a final round score of 7-under par 65.
Joining McChrystal in this weekend’s lineup are junior Jacqueline Hedwall, sophomore Mary Michael Maggio, junior Tessa Teachman and senior Amalie Valle.
Teachman shot her best collegiate score at the NCAA Fall Preview, tying for fourth place with a 5-under par 211. Maggio was the third LSU golfer who scored under par for the tournament, finishing in a tie for 13th place with a 3-under par 213.
Bahnsen said the team’s success will be determined by its ability to avoid mental mistakes.
“It’s just a matter of us going out and playing intelligent golf and eliminating mental errors,” Bahnsen said. “It’s going to take some good, low scores to win. So we’re just going to go and do our best and see where that puts us.”