BRYAN, Texas – For the No. 5 LSU women’s golf team it’s time to say, “California Here We Come!”
The Tigers took advantage of the first nine holes to move from T3 to the top of the leaderboard and captured first place in the NCAA Bryan Regional here Wednesday at The Traditions Club.
Also, LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad shot a third consecutive 4-under 68 to finish at 12-under par and capture the individual championship.
The Tigers advance to the NCAA National Championships later this month in Carlsbad, California at the Omni LaCosta Resort and Spa.
The win was LSU’s first outright victory in a regional and just the second time the Tigers were part of medalist honors in a regional. The Tigers tied for the title in the 2012 regional at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie, Colorado.
This will be the 17th time since 1982 that LSU has advanced to the NCAA championship tournament, the 15th since the regional tournament format started in 1993.
“We got off to a great start,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion, taking the Tigers to the championships for the fourth straight year, tying a school record. “By the time Ingrid walked off the first hole, we were in the process of taking the lead and pretty much held it the rest of the day. I think we had the most birdies today out of any days, which is on brand with what this team has been about. Our final rounds have been pretty strong, the rounds where they’ve shown up when we’ve needed it. We’re the first team to win a regional outright. These don’t come easy, and we’re very proud of that and the momentum it gives us going into the national championship.”
For Lindblad, the No. 1 world amateur and No. 1 on the college Scoreboard by Clippd rankings, the win was her 15th of her collegiate career, extending her own Southeastern Conference mark for collegiate wins.
Lindblad rallied from a double bogey on the third hole of the day, the 12th, and birdied five of the next six holes to turn at 4-under par. An even par front nine cemented her win. She finished at 12-under 204 (68-68-68).
Ironically it is the second straight year an LSU player won or shared medalist honors as last year Latanna Stone shot three rounds of 71 to win at the Palm Beach Gardens Regional.
Lindblad had a tournament best 19 birdies over the course of the three days.
“It was a good week overall,” Lindblad said. “Good on the green. I gave myself a lot of birdie chances and could probably have had even more putts drop. I like when it gets a little windy, it separates the players a bit more. The greens are small, so you want to hit the ball well. I did that this week, and I didn’t put myself in too much trouble.”
Lindblad finished three strokes ahead of Clemson’s Annabelle Pancake at 207 (71-66-70) with Carla Bernat of Kansas State earning individual qualification honors by finishing in third place at 7-under 209, the top score among players not on qualifying teams.
The Tigers started on the back nine on Wednesday, the same nine holes they completed with no bogeys over the final seven holes on Tuesday. LSU looked like they knew what to do from the beginning with 12 counting birdies and a score of 8-under par for the day going to the front nine.
Stone had a great finish on Wednesday with a clean card that included birdies on the opening 10th hole a par five and on both of the front nine par threes (2 and 7) for a 3-under 69. That gave her a top 10 finish of 5-under par 211 (68-74-69).
Stone was second in the field in pars with 41 over the course of play.
LSU also counted 1-over 73s from Carla Tejedo and Aine Donegan. Tejedo finished in a tie for 13th place at 2-over 218 (74-71-73).
LSU finished the tournament with a 5-under 283 round and a 54-holes at 8-under par 856 (286-287-283). Other qualifiers to nationals were Clemson and SMU at 4-under 860. Vanderbilt was at 1-over 865 and Texas A&M rallied in the final nine holes to get the fifth spot at 6-over 870.
“The team played well this week, but they weren’t satisfied going into today’s final round. They wanted to do more than just ‘get in,’ they wanted to win the regional. Mission accomplished. Our goal at the beginning of the year was to reach San Diego, which was a big reason why Latanna and Ingrid came back. Regionals are the most stressful tournaments of the year, and they stepped up when they needed to. It gives us momentum going into the final stretch.”
LSU was second in the field in par 3 scoring (+5) and par 4 scoring (+7) among all five players. LSU had a tournament best 47 birdies for the 54-holes. Lindblad led the tournament, playing the par 5s at -6 and Lindblad and Stone were both 4-under on the par 4 holes, tying for third best in the field. Lindblad was second in par 3 scoring at -2.
NCAA Bryan Regional
Traditions Club – Bryan, Texas
Final Team Results (Par 288-576-864)
1 LSU……………………… 286 287 283 856 -8
T2 SMU………………….. 286 284 290 860 -4
T2 Clemson…………………291 281 288 860 -4
4 Vanderbilt……………………… 297 288 280 865 +1
5 Texas A&M……………….. 287 286 297 870 +6
6 Ohio State……………….. 294 289 292 875 +11
7 Iowa State……………….. 293 297 290 880 +16
8 Sam Houston………………306 290 294 890 +26
9 Maryland…………………. 302 294 296 892 +28
10 Texas State………………. 297 301 598 +22
11 Little Rock………………. 305 313 302 +56
12 Sacred Heart Univ………..310 303 308 921 +57
Individual Top 5 (Par 72-144-216)
1 Ingrid Lindblad……………. LSU……………………… 68 68 68 204 -12
2 Annabelle Pancake……….Clemson………………….. 71 66 70 207 -9
T3 Carla Bernat…………. Texas A&M………………… 70 68 69 209 -7
T3 Virginie Ding……………… Vanderbilt……………….. 71 68 70 209 -7
T3 Adela Cernousek…………. Texas A&M………………… 70 68 71 209 -7
LSU Scores
1 Ingrid Lindblad – 68-68-68 – 204 -12
T6 Latanna Stone – 68-74-69 –211 -5
T13 Carla Tejedo – 74-71-73 – 218 +2
T34 Aine Donegan – 76-74-73 – 223 +7
58 Taylor Riley – 82-78-80 – 240 +24
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