SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – Strings of pars can be a good thing.
Throw in a few birdies between holes 8-10 and 16-18 and LSU remains in a strong position after two rounds of the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship at the Grayhawk Golf Club on Saturday.
The Tigers posted a five-shot improvement from Friday with a 3-over 291 (equaling the fifth best round of the day) to stand at 11-over par 587 for 36 holes (296-291).
LSU is fifth behind leader Stanford at 5-over 581. The Cardinal is four shots better than Oregon at 9-over 585. Auburn and UCLA are tied for third at 10-over par 586, with LSU next. It is two more shots back to Texas A&M at 13-over 589.
“When you have the afternoon wave, you can see what the morning wave is doing,” LSU women’s golf coach Garrett Runion said. “We knew it was going to be a hang-on type day and we did that today. We didn’t make a ton of birdies except in the middle and at the end. There were a lot of pars and not a lot of big mistakes. We played 7-9 extremely well and 16, 17, 18 well and that was the difference. Ingrid (Lindblad’s) eagle (on 18) jumps us up where we can get that early tee time (Sunday) and get us closer to the lead. Carla’s birdie on 17 was big for an even par round. We were very pleased with how things went today.”
The top 12 teams will play first in the third round on Sunday and LSU will be the first wave off the 10th tee with UCLA and Texas A&M at 6:30 a.m. PT (8:30 a.m. Baton Rouge time). The teams 13-24 will play in the afternoon with the field being cut to 15 teams for Monday’s final stroke play round. After Monday’s round the individual champion will be crowned and the top eight teams after 72 holes will go to match play next Tuesday.
LSU did not record a birdie on any of its five cards until the seventh hole and then the Tigers had eight birdies on holes 7-10. The LSU went back to par golf and just a few bogeys before a stretch on 16-18 when LSU got three more birdies and an eagle on 18 from Ingrid Lindblad.
Lindblad was 2-over after six holes on Saturday’s round. On the par 5 7th, a hole she had to take an unplayable on during Friday’s round, she hit a 5-iron 210 yards to set up an eagle put that stopped just short of the hole for her first birdie of the day. She birdied the par 3 eighth hole and then on her way to hitting 16 greens in regulation drilled her approach shot on the par 5 18th close and made the eagle for a 2-under round of 70.
The junior POY finalist played the last 12 holes in 4-under par and after two rounds stands at even par 144 (74-70). Lindblad moved up 21 spots in the standings and is now in a group tied for sixth.
Carla Tejedo had a good round with her third birdie of the day on the 17th hole getting her in with an even par 72. Elsa Svensson made a big improvement from the opening round with a strong 2-over 74 and Latanna Stone posted 3-over 75 to complete the counting scores.
Stone and Tejedo are tied for 30th at 4-over 148 after two rounds. Tejedo moved up 25 places in the standings on Saturday.
Live scoring for Sunday’s third round can be found at Golfstat.com and the NCAA D1 Women’s Championship box. Updates during the round are available on Twitter @LSUWomensGolf.
LSU Individual Totals
T6. Ingrid Lindblad 74-70 – 144 E
T29. Latanna Stone 73-75 – 148 +4
T29. Carla Tejedo 76-72 – 148 +4
T56. Alden Wallace 73-78 – 151 +7
T82. Elsa Svensson 80-74 – 154 +10
Be the first to comment