If women’s golf coach Karen Bahnsen were using last month’s Lady Gamecock Classic to indicate where her team stands, chances are Bahnsen would not feel confident in her team at this year’s Southeastern Conference Championships — if it were not for her team’s added practice time.
The No. 25 Lady Tigers concluded their season with a middle-of-the-pack seventh-place finish out of the 11 teams competing at the tournament four weeks ago.
Bahnsen said the unusually long four-week layoff will give the Lady Tigers some much-needed rest.
“That wasn’t by design initially,” Bahnsen said. “Before the season I could not find a tournament that was the right fit for us, so I preferred to give ourselves the time off.”
But Bahnsen remains positive in her approach, citing extra practice time as a reason the Lady Tigers will be prepared for this weekend’s SEC Championships, which LSU will host.
“We played pretty poorly,” Bahnsen said, referring to LSU’s performance at the Lady Gamecock Classic. “Now I’m glad we have that break because we’re playing the way we’re capable of.”
Some Lady Tigers, such as junior Brooke Shelton, will be looking to improve their marks from four weeks ago. Shelton finished at No. 21, which was below average for her standards, considering the four-game streak of top-10 finishes Shelton compiled.
Shelton said she now feels better about this weekend’s championships.
“We’ve been focusing on playing the course,” Shelton said. “It’s been nice to have the month off to play the course and get comfortable with it.”
Shelton said she is confident in her team’s chances as well.
“I think we have a really good chance of winning, not only because it’s on our own course, but because everybody is playing well and we’re really excited about it,” Shelton said.
The Lady Tigers will compete against six teams in the Top 25, and 10 of the 12 competing teams in the Top 50 at the SEC Championships this weekend.
LSU men’s golf coach Greg Jones has reason to feel confident about his team’s chances, after winning its last event before they head to Sea Island, Ga., for the SEC Championships this weekend.
At their last tournament, the No. 27 Tigers overcame a 12-stroke deficit in the final round to take the LSU Spring Invitational title by one shot. After the come-from-behind performance, Jones said he has never been more proud as a coach of his players.
“I am extremely proud of our players because they fought hard and really raised the intensity while maintaining their focus,” Jones said. “We had a tough assignment coming into today being down 12 strokes, and we knew it was going to be difficult, but we did it and I have never been more proud of a team for doing what they did in my career as I am of this one today.”
Heath West was named SEC Player of the Week after scoring a 4-under par 212 in LSU’s comeback victory.
“This is a tremendous honor for Heath because he is a great player and he deserved this recognition for helping our team to a victory in a big tournament,” Jones said.
The Tigers will compete against five teams in the Top 25 and eight of the 12 in the top 50, including top teams Florida and Georgia, ranked No. 1 and No. 3, respectively.