TIGER RAG NEWS SERVICES
CARLSBAD, California – LSU senior graduate Taylor Riley completed her four-year LSU career here Monday in the final stroke play in 30th out of 156 players at the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship at the OMNI La Costa Resort course on Monday.
Riley made the cut for the final round as one of the nine players on teams that didn’t make the top 15 cut after 54 holes on Sunday. But she had to take a circuitous route to make it happen. First, there was a birdie 4 on the final hole of regulation on the par 5 18th hole. That put her in a tie for the ninth qualifying spot which resulted in a playoff late Sunday evening Pacific Time.
The threesome played four holes, all with pars, when darkness shut down the playoff. The players returned Monday morning and Riley parred the par 4 17th hole to advance to Monday’s final round.
In the final round Monday afternoon, Riley finished her official last hole of her college career (the ninth) just as she did the night before on the 18th hole, with a birdie that put her at 2-over par 74 for the day and 2-over par for 72 holes. She finished at T30 for the Championships in a field of 156 players that started play on Friday.
Her rounds were 72-75-69-74 for a total of 290, the 10th best 72 hole score by an LSU women’s golfer in program history.
Riley became the 13th player in LSU women’s golf history to play in at least three NCAA Championships, and being from San Diego knows the ups and downs of this course she has been a part of helping LSU contest the Championships the last three years.
“We talked about it in the practice round,” Riley said. “Every single shot, you just have to focus. There’s not one shot out here that I’m like ‘Oh this is easy. Like I could do this in my sleep.’ You definitely have to think every shot through, and try to not think about the bad places to miss, but only all the good places to hit the ball. You have to focus so hard and you just have to give it your best, every single shot. And, the greens are very, very tricky. It helps a little bit more that as the years go on, that they are getting a little bit softer, but still, just everything from tee to green makes it a championship course.”
Farrah O’Keefe of Texas won the individual national championship at 12-under 204.
The tournament continues on Tuesday and Wednesday as the top eight teams at the end of Monday’s play take part in match play to decide the national championship.
The LSU men were scheduled to arrive here late on Monday and will begin play on Friday in the men’s NCAA Championship.
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