SEC Championships History

CHAMPIONSHIPS

After a major format change, the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship has shown that it can play on a nationallyteleivised platform.

The format involves a cut after 54 holes to the top-15 teams and nine individuals not on those 15 teams. They play a final stroke play round to determine the national individual champion and the eight teams that will advance to match play.

To win the national championship, a team will then have to win three best-of-five player matches over the course of two days.

The 2021 NCAA championship will be held on the same course that the men’s championship will be contested on -- Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. The women’s championship will be contested May 21-26.

LSU had its best national championship finishes in 2011 and 2012 taking home third place both years. In 2012, the Tigers were just two shots out from bringing home the title.

Teams will qualify through four regional sites with six teams advancing from each. LSU is scheduled to host a 2021 regional, along with Ohio State, Louisville and Stanford. The dates are May 10-12 for the regional competition.

LSU has made 13 team appearances in the NCAA Championships since the program began in 1982. The Tigers were in that first event in Palo Alto, California, when LSU finished 16th.

The Tigers would return in 1986 when LSU was led by SEC Player of the Year Jenny Lidback. Lidback helped the Tigers to a ninth-place finish, and finished tied for 17th.

LSU’s longest championship run started in 1986, when the Three Amigas (Ashley Winn, Laura Moore and Michelle Louviere) took the Tigers to top 10-finishes in 1996 (8th) and 1998 (5th). Louviere finished tied for 19th in 1986 and Winn tied for 15th.

The Tigers posted 10th-place finishes in 1999 and 2000 and a 12th-place finish in 2001 on teams led by Katy Harris and Meredith Duncan. Duncan played the last 54 holes in 2-under par after opening with a 10-over 82 to finish in a tie for seventh place in 2000 and Harris shot a 1-under 287 to finish in a tie for third in LSU’s appearance in 2001.

Harris, Duncan and Megan McChrystal are the three LSU players who played in the championships all four years of their careers. Harris made it on four teams from 1998 to 2001, while Duncan qualified on three teams and once individually from 1999- 2002. McChrystal’s four years (2008-11) included three team appearances, including assisting in the 2011 team’s first of back-to-back third-place finishes.

Tessa Teachman (2009, 2011, 2012), Jacqueline Hedwall (2009, 2011, 2012), Kristi Coats (1990, 1991, 1992), Caroline Martens (2006, 2008, 2009) and Amalie Valle (2008,

LSU POSTED BACK-TO-BACK THIRD PLACE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP FINISHES IN 2011 (TOP) AND 2012 (BOTTOM).

2009, 2011) are the golfers with three NCAA Championships appearances.

The individual highlight came from freshman Austin Ernst in 2011 when she closed with a 6-under 66 that included a hole-in-one to win the title.

Since 1993, to get to the NCAA Division I Championships, teams and individuals must go through the NCAA Regional Tournaments. LSU has hosted the regional on three occasions (1993, 2002, 2007).

As a team, LSU has advanced to the regional round of NCAA post-season play since that first tournament in 1993 in all but four seasons as a team (1994, 2002, 2017 and 2018). In 2019, the Tigers went into the final round at East Lansing in contention to advance to the Championship tournament.

Regionals are make-or-break tournaments that reward the teams playing the best over those 54 holes. In 2009, LSU used a chip-in birdie by Alexis Rather on the first hole of sudden death to go to the Championships, but in 2010, one shot meant the difference between eighth and ninth place as LSU missed a chance to go back again.

LSU won its first regional title in 2012, capturing the West Regional in Erie, Colorado, en route to its second-consecutive third-place finish at the Championships.