The LSU women’s golf team wraps up the fall portion of its 2014-15 season Sunday at the Alamo Invitational on the Briggs Ranch Golf Club’s par-72 layout in San Antonio, Texas.
The Lady Tigers are going into the UTSA-hosted tournament after falling to No. 23 in the most recent Golfweek rankings released Oct. 21. They’ll face a field with three other top-25 teams, including No. 7 Arkansas, No. 19 Auburn and No. 24 Texas A&M.
A year ago at the Alamo Invitational, former LSU golfer Lindsay Gahm — who will be vying for a spot on the LPGA Tour in December — stood at the top of the leaderboard after three rounds, helping her team finish second behind Oklahoma.
Gahm’s performance in San Antonio produced the second-lowest 54-hole score of any Lady Tiger in the program’s more-than-30-year history. Gahm matched former Lady Tiger and current LPGA professional Megan McChrystal’s score at the 2010 Tar Heel Invitational and came up two strokes short of the score carded at the 2011 Cougar Classic by former Lady Tiger Austin Ernst, who recently won her first LPGA event in August.
Senior Madelene Sagstrom, junior Nadine Dreher and sophomore Caroline Nistrup will return from last year’s second-place team in San Antonio. Joining them will be junior Elise Bradley and sophomore Carly Ray Goldstein, who will attempt to put a Lady Tiger on the podium again.
Sagstrom’s tie for sixth place at the season-opening Mason Rudolph Championship in Tennessee is the highest finish for the Lady Tigers this season. She has failed to finish in the top 5 in any tournament since she fell to Arkansas’ Gabby Lopez in a playoff to tie for second at the LSU Tiger Golf Classic in Baton Rouge last spring.
Bradley has overtaken Sagstrom, the highest-ranked Lady Tiger so far this season. Bradley led the LSU squad in the last two contests to land her the 44th spot in Golfweek’s individual rankings.
Nistrup and Goldstein each have a strong chance of competing for the tournament medal in San Antionio this weekend. Each of them has a runner-up finish during last year’s season and will be striving to get a break-through win.
But the Lady Tigers will face a resilient field of golfers with eight players ranked in the top 50, including Texas A&M’s No. 18 Maddie Szeryk and No. 23 Marijosse Navarro.
The three-day tournament will be the last opportunity for the Lady Tigers to get a win before they head to the Rio Mar Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, to compete in the Lady Puerto Rico Classic in February.