Courtesy of LSU Athletics
Thirty years of waiting came to an end for LSU on Sunday as the Tigers won their first Southeastern Conference Women’s Golf Championship since 1992 with a 3-0-2 victory over Florida at the Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Ala.
Ingrid Lindblad,
Carla Tejedo and
Latanna Stone all prevailed in their matches against their Florida counterparts, with Stone delivering the championship point with a 2 up victory over
Maisie Filler.
“Obviously it was an unbelievable week,” said LSU head coach Garrett Runion. “When I think about this week, I really think about all the players before. The SEC has a slogan, ‘It Just Means More.’ It really does, so it makes me think about all the players before that helped us get to this point. We had a lot of former players calling and texting and coming out here. It was a great week that they will never forget. I certainly won’t.”
2022 SEC Champions LSU Tigers With 11 teams ranked in the top-30 by Golfweek/Sagarin, the SEC Championships featured the deepest and strongest field of the Power 5 conferences. The Tigers defeated Vanderbilt and Alabama to reach the championship match against Florida, which knocked off Ole Miss and top-seeded Auburn to advance to the final.
Lindblad,
who won the individual title on Friday with an eagle on the 18th hole, set the tone of the day for LSU, easily defeating
Annabell Fuller, 6&5 in a match that ended on the 13th hole.
Tejedo, who went undefeated in the match play portion of the event, put the Tigers' second point on the board with a 4&2 win over
Marina Escobar.
Needing one point to secure the championship, attention turned to three tightly-contested matches which were still in progress.
Despite being down, 2-0, the Gators were still clinging to hope.
Clara Manzalini was even in her match with LSU's Elsa Svensson after 18 holes and Filler was even with Stone heading to the 17th hole.
Stone, a junior from Riverview, Fla. who was named to the
2023 Curtis Cup team earlier this week, rolled in an 18-foot birdie putt on the 17th to take a 1 up lead and then delivered the championship point with a two-putt par on 18 for a 2 up victory.
“I had some sort of idea but I was just trying to remain calm,” Stone said of what her birdie potentially meant for LSU. “But Garrett always says ‘act like your point matters and your point is going to count.’ So, I was just trying to stick in and have the finish that I had (Saturday). I pulled through with that which was nice. I took some relief off Elsa and Jessie.”
“Latanna absolutely stepped up when she needed to,” said Runion. “The last two matches were sensational at the end. She birdied the last three holes. I didn’t get to see it, but that is huge. That’s what you need from one of your best players. She stepped up when it was needed. That’s why she is a Curtis Cup member, a Palmer Cup member, an all-American, that’s what they do.”
SEC Championship Match
LSU d. Florida, 3-0-2
1. Carla Tejedo (LSU) d. Marina Escobar (Fla.), 4&2
2. Elsa Svensson (LSU) vs. Clara Manzalini (Fla.), Tied
3. Ingrid Lindblad (LSU) d. Annabell Fuller (Fla.), 6&5
4. Latanna Stone (LSU) d. Maisie Filler (Fla.), 2 up
5. Jessica Bailey (LSU) vs. Jackie Lucena (Fla.), Tied
Order of finish: 3, 1, 4.
LSU Athletic Communications contributed to this report.
ABOUT THE
SEC Women's Championship
54-hole stroke play tournament crowns an individual
champion, then four teams advance to match play
to
determine the SEC team champion.
View Complete Tournament Information