LSU women win playoff

• By ADVOCATE NEWS SERVICES
• Published: May 11, 2008 - Page: 2C - UPDATED: 1:30 a.m.

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AUSTIN, Texas — The LSU women’s golf team found itself in a position of having to win a two-team playoff with Florida State to advance back to the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships on Saturday at the NCAA Central Regional golf tournament at the University of Texas Golf Course.

The playoff was for the final spot in the championships from the regional to be held in Albuquerque, N.M., May 20-23. By the time the playoff started on hole No. 1, bad weather was surrounding the golf course, adding to the drama of the event.

Caroline Martens, Amalie Valle and Alexis Rather went out in the first group of the playoff with two Florida State players.

Martens, Valle and the Florida State golfers all made par, but Rather, a senior whose score earlier in the day didn’t count in the team total, made what proved to be the winning stroke when she chipped in from the right fringe on the par-4 hole for a birdie to put LSU in the lead at one under par.

The final group went off with three Florida State players and LSU’s Megan McChrystal and Rebecca Kuhn. No one was able to do better than par as an intense thunderstorm that included golf ball-size hail moved over the course as play finished.

LSU won with a score of minus one, but the tournament wasn’t officially over at that point.

If the rainstorm, which lasted some 20 minutes, had not cleared to allow the final three teams that were not in contention back on the course to finish the round, the round would have been declared incomplete by the NCAA and scores would have reverted back to Friday’s 36-hole totals wiping out LSU’s finish.

But the round was completed shortly before 8 p.m. and the playoff stood, putting LSU in the championships.

“Alexis is our fifth-year senior, and she sank that chip shot for us to send us to the NCAAs on a day where she really struggled on the course,” LSU coach Karen Bahnsen said in a university release.

“She’s been such a force on the team, and when we were sitting around waiting for the playoff, we told her that she needed to do something for us to earn her keep today. Seriously, it is fitting that she be the person to make the decisive shot for us. I am extremely excited for her and of course, for our whole team.”

The playoff win advances LSU to the championships for the first time since 2006 and  the ninth time in school history.

This was the first time the Lady Tigers were involved in a playoff for the team spot, although the last time LSU was in a regional in
Texas, Brooke Shelton had to win a playoff to advance as an individual qualifier in 2005.

The Lady Tigers spent much of the final round working in the seventh through ninth positions, holding on to the eighth spot before dropping to the ninth spot behind teams just starting the round. But LSU’s position was even more unsure as the unofficial computer calculations had LSU missing qualifying by one shot.