March 20, 2016
By Chris Masters
BATON ROUGE, La. – It was not the kind of start the University of Notre Dame women’s golf team was expecting, nor one it has grown accustomed to during a record-setting 2015-16 season.
The Fighting Irish will have some ground to make up as they find themselves in 12th place after carding a 27-over par 315 during Sunday’s opening round of the LSU Tiger Classic at the University Club (par 72/6,247 yards) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Third-ranked Duke holds the early lead in the 17-team event at 293, six shots clear of No. 4 Arkansas (299). The Fighting Irish are among a group of 11 squads in a logjam along the middle of the team standings, with 14 strokes separating third place from 13th place.
Senior captain Talia Campbell (Dallas, Texas/Ursuline Academy) is Notre Dame’s top individual through 18 holes after starting off with a 77 (+5) on Sunday. She is 10 strokes behind overnight leader Celine Boutier of Duke in the 96-player field.
Just how out of character was Sunday’s score for Notre Dame? Consider it had posted a 290.90 season stroke average coming into the LSU tournament, including a 289.83 mark through its first six rounds this spring – both marks are well ahead of the school-record pace the Fighting Irish set just last year.
What’s more, in its first 20 rounds this season, Notre Dame had registered team scores of 300 or higher only twice, and those both came in the same tournament (303 in the first round and 309 in the third round of Louisville’s Cardinal Cup on Oct. 19-20).
Freshman Emma Albrecht (Ormond Beach, Fla./Father Lopez) and junior Jordan Ferreira (University Place, Wash./Bellarmine Prep) are tied for 45th place after opening with rounds of 79 (+7).
Meanwhile, freshman Maddie Rose Hamilton (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart Academy) is in a 56th-place tie at 80 (+8) and classmate Isabella DiLisio (Hatfield, Pa./Mount Saint Joseph Academy) is one shot behind her in a tie for 63rd place at 81 (+9).
Notre Dame will begin its climb up the team standings at 11 a.m. ET (10 a.m. CT) Monday when it tees off in the second round of the LSU Tiger Classic from hole No. 10 at the University Club. Live scoring will be available through the Golfstat web site (Golfstat.com), with in-progress updates also provided through the Fighting Irish women’s golf Twitter feed (@NDwomensGolf).
For more information on the Notre Dame women’s golf program, visit the women’s golf page of the official Fighting Irish athletics web site (UND.com/ndwomensgolf), sign up to follow the Notre Dame women’s golf Twitter feed (@NDwomensGolf) or register for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the “Fan Center” pulldown menu on the front page at UND.com.
LSU Tiger Classic
March 20-22, 2016
University Club (par 72/6,247 yards)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
TEAM SCORES (18-hole totals): 1. Duke 293; 2. Arkansas 299; 3. Tennessee 302; 4. (tie) Tulane and LSU 305; 6. (tie) Houston, Mississippi State and Kentucky 307; 9. UNC Wilmington 310; 10. (tie) Wake Forest and North Carolina State 311; 12. NOTRE DAME 315; 13. North Carolina 316; 14. Oklahoma 319; 15. Ole Miss 320; 16. Denver 321; 17. Auburn 326.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS PLUS NOTRE DAME GOLFERS (of 96): 1. Celine Boutier (DU) 67; 2. (tie) Blakesly Warren (UT), Ji Eun Baik (MSU) and Kayla Thompson (UNCW) 72; 5. Cara Gorlei (UA), Sarah Bae (NCSU) and Cylia Damerau (UK) 73; 8. Maria Fassi (UA), Naomi Ko (NCSU)* and Emily Penttila (TU) 74; 25. (tie) Talia Campbell (ND) 77; 45. (tie) Emma Albrecht (ND) and Jordan Ferreira (ND) 79; 56. (tie) Maddie Rose Hamilton (ND) 80; 63. (tie) Isabella DiLisio (ND) 81.
* – competing as individual participant
– ND –
Chris Masters, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2001 and coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s golf and women’s basketball programs. A native of San Francisco, California, Masters is a 1996 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, earned his master’s degree from Kansas State University in 1998, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).