SUNSET, South Carolina – The numbers 47 and eight proved to be special after the LSU women’s golf team concluded its regular season team competition at the Clemson Invitational here Sunday afternoon.
47 – The number of team victories for LSU in its 40-plus-year history as a college program. LSU posted a 4-over par round of 292 on the final day to move from fourth to first and secure the team championship by one shot over Illinois and four shots over Kentucky.
For LSU Head Coach Garrett Runion, it was his sixth team championship in his four years as the head of the program.
8 – Ingrid Lindblad posted one of just two under par rounds on the final day of the 54-hole tournament and her 4-under 68 allowed her to move past the competition and score a five-shot victory. The win, the junior’s second straight, gives her eight wins at LSU and she is now the all-time women’s collegiate leader in wins at the school. The tournament win allows her to break a tie with Jenny Lidback, who won seven tournaments in the 1985-86 season. Lindblad tied that mark earlier in the month at the Clover Cup in Mesa, Arizona with Lidback on hand to watch.
For LSU, ranked T17 in the Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll, the Tigers were chasing Kentucky for a good portion of the round as the Wildcats held the 36-hole lead. LSU was playing in the wave in front of Kentucky and moved into position to take the title but Illinois, which entered the day tied for sixth, finished earlier and eventually was tied with the Tigers at 28-over par.
But Lindblad birdied the par 5 17th hole and that proved to be the difference that dropped LSU to a winning +27 891 score at The Reserve at Lake Keowee. Illinois shot the best round of the day at 290, but LSU’s second-best score of 4-over 292 was the difference in getting the trophy.
For Lindblad, the first nine holes were pivotal in the victory as she had nine birdies (three each round) on those holes and a tournament leading 12 birdies. She fired rounds of 74-70-68 for a 4-under 212, five shots clear of Annabell Fuller of Florida at 1-over 217 with Florida’s Marina Escobar Domingo and Brooke Biermann of Michigan State at 2-over 218.
Lindblad played the par four holes in 1-under and the par five holes in 5-under par.
She becomes just the third LSU women’s golfer to win four times in a college season joining Lidback and Kristi Coats (1990-91). Lindblad is the only golfer at LSU, male or female, with eight individual titles in the last 40 years.
Junior, teammate Latanna Stone also had another solid tournament, tying for seventh with a 6-over 222 (74-73-75).
On Monday, Stone and Lindblad will be heading to Augusta, Ga. for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur which begins on Wednesday. It will be Lindblad’s second appearance in the event (finishing T3 last year) and Stone’s first.
LSU also counted a 73 from senior Jessica Bailey and a 76 from Elsa Svensson. LSU showed its depth in the tournament as LSU’s No. 3 golfer, sophomore Carla Tejedo, had to be replaced the night before the start of the tournament with an illness. Senior Presley Baggett was able to join the team Thursday evening and play her first event of the season.
Clemson Invitational – Sunset, South Carolina
Final Team Results – Par 288-864
1. LSU 297-302-292 – 891 +27; 2. Illinois 292-310-290 – 892 +28; 3. Kentucky 297-296-302 – 895 +31; 4. Florida 294-302-300 – 896 +32; 5. Florida State 304-297-296 – 897 +33; 6. Michigan State 299-296-309 – 904 +40; 7. Miami 305-304-296 – 905 +41; 8. Furman 295-313-300 – 908 +44; 9. Tennessee 300-309-302 – 911 +47; 10. Clemson 292-316-304 – 912 +48; 10. Clemson 292-316-304 – 912 +48; T11. Maryland 305-303-309, Kent State 303-308-306 – 917 +53; 13. Vanderbilt 304-313-304 – 921 +57; T14 Kansas 307-316-302, Purdue 312-308-305 – 925 +61; 16. Virginia Tech 313-319-301 – 933 +69; 17. Notre Dame 307-318-320 – 945 +81.
LSU Individual Scores
1 Ingrid Lindblad – 74-70-68 – 212 -4
T7 Latanna Stone – 74-73-75 – 222 +6
37 Jessica Bailey – 75-81-73 – 229 +13
T44 Elsa Svensson 74-81-76 – 231 +15
T63 Presley Baggett 78-78-78 – 234 +18
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