When Megan McChrystal timidly left the comfort of her hometown of Stuart, Fla., to begin her college career at LSU, she didn’t come alone. McChrystal said good bye to her family and packed her car on her way to a new home in a new town, but she felt compelled to bring a little piece of Florida with her. “I brought a palm tree with me to school,” McChrystal said. “I brought it with me to remind me of where I’m from.”    The reminder helped ease McChrystal’s transition into her freshman year. “It made me feel more comfortable,” she said. “It made here feel a little more like home.”McChrystal proved how comfortable she was when she stepped onto the golf course her freshman season for the Lady Tigers. In her first collegiate tournament, McChrystal led her team with a 12th-place, 2-over-par performance at the 2007 Cougar Classic. More than 100 golfers competed in the tournament. She went on to lead her team in stroke average last season with 74.6 strokes per round — No. 4 on LSU’s all-time single-season stroke average list. “It’s a big jump from high school to college,” said LSU coach Karen Bahnsen. “For her freshman year, I think she did quite well.”The freshman finished in the top 10 three times. She finished tied for 12th place and recorded her season low score of 68 in the final round of the UCF Challenge in her home state March 11. McChrystal led her team to a 15th-place finish in the 2008 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships and earned several accolades, including 2008 LSWA Women’s Golfer of the Year, 2008 SEC All-Freshman Team and 2008 Second Team All-SEC.Despite her achievements, McChrystal believes she could have performed better.”If you talk with Megan, I don’t think she considers it that much of a successful season,” said Frank McChrystal, Megan’s father. “She had three or four bad rounds during the year that prevented her from having a super good scoring average.”Megan McChrystal went to Toronto, Canada, during the summer to work with Shawn Clement, the golf instructor at Richmond Hill Golf Learning Centre. “I went and saw a swing coach to help me get my swing more solidified,” she said. “We worked on a different turn away from the ball.”McChrystal hopes all her hard work during the summer will help her performances this season.”She’s really looking forward to this year,” Frank McChrystal said. “Her goal this year is to have a scoring average around par-72 and to be one of the top-20 players in the nation.”McChrystal teed off her sophomore season in the Cougar Classic on Sept. 14-16. She led the Lady Tigers again, finishing tied for No. 14 with teammate, freshman Jacqueline Hedwall, at 1-over-par 217.She followed up the performance with a 4-under-par 213 at the Mercedes-Benz Championship this weekend — good enough for a fourth-place tie, her fourth top-10 finish at LSU.”I expect her to continue doing well on the team,” Bahnsen said. “Her maturity is a lot better on the golf course.” As McChrystal’s golf game continues to blossom at LSU, she hasn’t forgotten the little piece of Florida that helped ease her transition to Baton Rouge. “It’s important for it to stay alive,” she said. “It’s my goal to keep it alive all four years.”—-Contact Jarred LeBlanc at [email protected]