Landmark victory for Clemson Women at the Clover Cup
It seems only fitting a longshot would win the Clover Cup hosted by Notre Dame at the Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Ariz.
The unranked Clemson Tigers, a program in just its ninth year of existence, made the most of their cross-country trip to the southwest to take the team title in a field that included five teams ranked inside the top-30 of the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.
The Tigers entered the final round two shots back of 36-hole leader LSU but shot an impressive 12-under in the final round to finish at 18-under 846, five strokes clear of second-place Texas A&M. No. 16 LSU dropped to third after carding an even-par 286 on Sunday.
Clemson used under-par rounds from
Melena Barrientos (68),
Savannah Grewal (69),
Katherine Schuster (69) and
Annabelle Pancake (70) to win its outright team title in a 54-hole event and third overall tournament win in school history.
Schuster was the only Clemson player to finish inside the top-10, tying for sixth place at 5-under at 211. Grewal (t-13th), Barrientos (t-15th) and Callista Rice (t-19th) all earned top-20 finishes while Pancake tied for 27th.
"We are still a relatively young program in just our ninth season," said Clemson head coach Kelley Hester. "Any win is good but to travel across the country and beat a good number of teams ranked higher than we are give us some confidence heading into our last regular season event at home in a few weeks."
LSU junior
Ingrid Lindblad won her third individual title of the season and seventh of her career with a 13-under score of 203 (65-70-68), which placed her five strokes clear of
Caitlyn Macnab of TCU,
Jennie Park of Texas A&M and
Sera Hasegawa of East Tennessee State.
Lindblad, a native of Halmstad, Sweden who is currently second in the
Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Amateur Ranking, won the Stephens Cup and Moon Invitational earlier this season. Her seven career wins tie her with Jenny Lidback for the all-time wins in program history.
U.S. Women's Amateur champion
Jensen Castle of Kentucky closed with a 6-under round of 66 to secure a fifth-place finish at 7-under 209. She had six birdies and an eagle on her Sunday against just two bogeys.
ABOUT THE
Clover Cup
54 hole team and individual women's college
tournament hosted by the University of Notre Dame.
Team (best four scores out of five players each round)
and individual competitions.
View Complete Tournament Information