Notre Dame traveled south this weekend to compete in the LSU Tiger Golf Classic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, finishing eighth in a 16-team, high-powered tournament.
The field included No. 6 LSU, No. 10 Wake Forest and No. 11 Mississippi State, and the Irish finished the weekend with a 52-over-par 914, 35 shots behind the host and tournament winner, LSU.
Despite the strong field, Notre Dame head coach Susan Holt said she was not happy with the eighth place finish.
“I’m not at all satisfied,” Holt said. “We should have finished no worse than fifth in the field based on the rankings. We felt some of those teams ranked ahead of us could have been beaten. We did not play well. One good round out of three isn’t going to get it done.”
The weekend was one of peaks and valleys as the Irish started the tournament with a 24-over 312 to finish the first day in seventh place, but then came back on the second day to move into fifth place with a four-over 288. Holt said the team adjusted to the conditions on the second day and that led to the improvement.
“We had a lot of unforced errors and sloppy play,” Holt said. “The wind was very strong the first day. The golf course played totally different [Thursday] in the practice round. We just didn’t adjust to it. [Saturday] conditions were much better and we were able to manage things better and play better.”
But a rough third-round, 22-over score of 310 saw Notre Dame drop down to eighth place. Holt said the poor performance on the third day was due to a mix of bad weather and poor putting.
“It got windy again today,” Holt said. “We did not manage conditions well. A lot of it came down to putting. These greens are pretty slick, pretty fast and we didn’t putt very well. Hopefully looking forward we’ll be able to have a bit more consistency and play more to our capability.”
Senior captain Ashley Armstrong led the Irish on the weekend, tallying a nine-over 225 over the three rounds.
Despite the eighth-place finish, Holt said the team can learn from playing against some of the best teams in the country.
“Every time you go out, you hope to get something out of it,” Holt said. “I think it’s good in that it shows our players where we’re at and what we need to continue to work on and improve upon. Hopefully as we move through the rest of the season and into the postseason, we’ll be doing those things better and execute better.”
Holt said for the team to improve, each golfer must work on her game individually.
“Golf is an individual game,” Holt said. “I hope the weather’s decent at home so we can maybe get outside on Tuesday and get some practice in. They all have their stats from the weekend and know what they need to work on, and hopefully we’ll be able to get that done.”
Notre Dame will compete in the Bryan National Collegiate next weekend in Greensboro, North Carolina.
