Following a record-shattering performance on Wednesday, the question surrounding the LSU women’s golf team was not how they were able to get it done, but rather will they be able to repeat it again on Thursday?
Yes. The women’s squad was able to replicate a top finishing round again on Thursday for the second round of the SEC championship. The women’s squad shot a 12-under on their second round, and the next lowest score, 10-under, was from third place Auburn.
Thursday’s round was full of equilibrium and balance. The team registered four scores of 3-under, 69, and the other score that was not counted was 2-under, 70. This is what Head Coach Garrett Runion describes as their dominance in their depth.
“Very proud of the ladies these past two days,” he said. “To come out and break the SEC and LSU single round record is very impressive, but I am more impressed with how they backed that up today with the second-lowest round in LSU history. Our round today showed how consistent and deep we can be we with four rounds of 69 and our fifth round of 70.”
Ingrid Lindblad, native of Halmstad, Sweden, started her second-round hot with three birdies and six pars. On the back nine, keeping her score in the red was in question; she had bogeyed the par-4 10th hole and then double-bogeyed the par-3 13th hole. Not to be phased by new struggles, Lindblad responded with a triplet of birdies on 14, 15 and 16. Collectively, she is 6-under and tied for 12th.
Fellow sophomore Latanna Stone fired off a less hectic second round 3-under. She was even-kelter, sliding in 15 pars and three birdies. She is tied for 16th at 5-under. Freshman Carla Tejedo Mulet had 5 birdies and two bogeys in her 3-under second round. Mulet is tied for 22nd at 3-under.
Senior Kendall Griffin and junior Alden Wallace are both battling a four-way tie for second place with scores of 8-under, two strokes off Pauline Roussin-Bouchard of South Carolina. Griffin signed the fourth 3-under scorecard with six birdies and two bogeys. Wallace signed the 2-under scorecard, with three bogeys, three birdies and an eagle.
LSU’s dominance is evident through the first two legs of this four-round event – the fourth round will showcase the lowest eight teams in a match-play event. The squad is leading the field on their performance on par-4’s, collectively they have shot 14-under and are averaging 3.86 strokes on these holes. Par-5’s alike, they are leading the field scoring at 16-under and average 4.60 on the longer holes.
“It was a fun day and look forward to what we have been doing, focusing on us and trying to improve tomorrow,” Runion added.
The key to the team’s success so far lies with the fact that as a group LSU has sank the most birdies through the first two rounds, 47. They lead Auburn in this category by six units.
The question for Friday’s round, that will begin on hole 1 at 9:40 a.m., will be: Will the purple and gold keep applying pressure to the gas? Or will they get comfortable with the lead and lose it?
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