While most college freshmen were still figuring out the finer points of microwaving Ramen noodles, Lady Tiger golfer Austin Ernst was busy winning an individual national championship for the women’s golf team.
No big deal.
“It’s been a wild ride,” Ernst said. “Being 19, being a freshman in college and having a national championship, it’s crazy.”
It might be crazy, but for Ernst, clinching the championship was a dream end to a stellar freshman campaign that saw her net five top-10 finishes and two tournament wins. She was also the first collegiate champion in the history of Lady Tiger golf.
“Did I think a player was going to go out and win a NCAA championship as a freshman? You can dream about it, but I didn’t know that,” said LSU coach Karen Bahnsen. “I wish I did, I could go buy some lottery tickets. I thought she had the ability to be a quite successful player, but obviously it happened a lot quicker than we thought, which was tremendous.”
Entering the championship, Ernst was on a hot streak and torched the course in the first two rounds. But a third round score of 77 and a three-stroke deficit looked like it might derail the young golfer.
But Ernst was not a typical freshman.
Her mad dash toward the championship included a flurry of birdies, a 60-foot putt and a once-in-a-lifetime shot en route to a 6-under 66 score.
“It shows how tough she is mentally,” Bahnsen said. “She’s a very mature player for her age.”
Ernst catapulted herself up the leaderboard when she aced the 162-yard par-3 second hole. It was her first hole-in-one in her life, tournament or practice play.
When recounting the final round, Ernst said she didn’t remember the particulars — then proceeded to give a detailed description of memorable shots and her score for each hole.
But she didn’t say she was hazy about her feelings at the end of the round.
“I figured when I was coming down the stretch that I was in the lead,” Ernst said. “I never knew for sure. I remember walking off the 18th green, and the team ran down to me. I pointed at them and asked them if I won. When it was real, it was just amazement. It was an unbelievable feeling.”
Her road to being an NCAA champion started when she was 6 years old. Her father, Mark Ernst, is a club pro at Cross Creek Plantation golf course in Seneca, S.C.
“I played everything when I was a kid, so it was kind of just another thing to play,” Ernst said. “It wasn’t anything [my dad] forced on me. I was always hanging around the golf course, and I just wanted to pick up a club.”
For the next 12 years, Ernst honed her game with her father before arriving on LSU’s campus as one of the highest-rated female golfers in her class.
Though she was the youngest player on the team last season, Ernst had an unwavering confidence.
“Going into any tournament this year, I thought I was going to win,” Ernst said. “Going into North Carolina, which was my first tournament, I thought I was going to win it.”
And Ernst isn’t finished yet.
Her personal goals include adding to her list of individual tournament wins and team wins in the Southeastern Conference and national tournaments.
And, for the ever-confident Ernst, one more thing.
“Might as well go win [the national championship] twice,” she said.
 
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Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]