LSU Women's Golf Begins NCAA Championship Play Friday

CARLSBAD, California – The LSU women’s golf team has returned to what has become the mecca of college golf as the Tigers will begin play here on Friday in the 2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship at the famed OMNI La Costa Resort and Spa North Course.

LSU advanced to the Championships with a fourth-place finish on May 13 at the NCAA Waco Regional at the Ridgewood Country Club. That tournament featured a school record round for post-season play of 8-under par 272 in the second round that pushed LSU over the top, virtually guaranteeing the team’s spot in national.

The Tigers also extended their school record of Championship appearances to six, after breaking the school mark of four with their appearance last year. They are one of just eight schools with an active record of at least six straight NCAA championships appearances.

LSU is joined on the list by USC, Stanford, Texas, Florida State, Wake Forest, Oklahoma State and Baylor.

Ironically, in six NCAA Championships, the Tigers have only played in two sites – the first three years at Grayhawk in Scottsdale, Arizona and this will be the third straight year the tournament was held in Carlsbad.

“It’s very special to make it here one time,” said eighth-year head coach Garrett Runion. “To make it six years in a row is extremely special, and I’m proud of that. It’s very hard to do. Not a lot of teams have done it. All the credit goes to the players that have bought in, worked hard, and showed up when they needed to, on the most stressful tournament of the year (NCAA regionals) and I think that just helps them understand what we’ve done back home to prepare them, and handle that pressure.”

OMNI La Costa, also set to host the 2027 and 2028 national championships in both men and women, was built in 1965 on what had been an equestrian ranch just north of San Diego. In 1969 it was selected as the home of the Tournament of Champions with several outstanding events, most notably the one-hole playoff in the rain in which Tiger Woods’ tee shot on the iconic par 3 16th hole landed inches from the hole for a tap-in birdie.

The North Course, formerly the Champions course, reopened in 2024 prior to the NCAA Championships, following a renovation by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, undertaken to ready the resort as it picked up the tournament thread once more with the NCAAs.

For the women’s championship, the course will play to a maximum of 6,373 yards, par 72, with changeable yardages on 14 holes that including the potentially drivable par 4 11th and a par 3 12th hole that can play as long as 188 and as short as 95 yards. The famed 16th is now reconfigured to resembled the 12th at Augusta National.

“It’s a sense of familiarity coming here. I felt like the first year after the remodel, the greens were really firm. The last two years they’ve softened up,” said Coach Runion. “This year it like they are going to bump a few tees back, so it may play a bit longer. The rough is thicker, kind of patchy in spots, but all-in-all, it’s a good championship course and tests every part of your game.”

Last year, LSU finished in a tie for 10th and in 2024, tied Stanford for medalist honors after 72 holes finishing in T5 after losing, 3-2, in the first match play round.

The format is the same this year as the field of 30 will be cut to 15 teams after 54 holes of play on Sunday. The final stroke play round is then contested on Monday and the individual champion is crowned and the top eight teams begin match play on Tuesday to determine the team champion next Wednesday.

LSU is the 26th seed of the 30 teams, ranked 34th in the NCAA/Scoreboard rankings.

The Tigers will use the same lineup that it used at the NCAA Women Regional with sophomore Francesca Fiorellini, grad student Elsa Svensson, senior Taylor Riley, sophomore Josefin Widal and Ryleigh Knaub. Sophomore Rocio Tejedo will be the alternate.

Knaub leads the team in stroke average at 71.96 just ahead of Fiorellini’s 71.97 average. Riley is at 72.67, just ahead of Svensson’s 72.70. Widal is at 74.42 for the season.

One thing in LSU’s favor as it goes into the 54-hole portion of the event to make the 15-team cut is that everyone has at least one NCAA round over the La Costa course other than the freshman Knaub.

Riley becomes the 13th LSU player to play in at least three national championship events.

“It helped during the practice round, where we only had our freshman Riley Knaub who hadn’t seen the course,” said Coach Runion. “So we could really spend some quality time with here during the practice round, and explain kind of where they are going to put the pins, and the shots that she may see during the rounds.

“The others kind of know the deal and know the shots to practice during the round, and they know what a good score is on some of these holes. There are some holes out here that are very tough and good par holes, and they know that those may be the ones you play a little more conservative on, and they know the holes that you can be a little more aggressive on and look to make birdie. I felt like our practice round went really well (Thursday). They hit it very well.”

The TIgers are making their 19th appearance in the event. LSU was in the inaugural event after the
NCAA took over the women’s championships in 1982. LSU first cracked the top 10 in 1986 when LSU
finished ninth at the Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio.

LSU’s best finishes came in the 2011-12 tournaments when the Tigers finished in third place both
years. In 2011 in Bryan, Texas, LSU finished eight shots behind UCLA at 1,181. In Franklin,
Tennessee in 2012, LSU was third by just two shots at 1,173 behind Alabama (1,171) and Southern Cal
(1,172).

In 2011, freshman Austin Ernst shot middle and ending rounds of 6-under 66 to win the individual
title with a four-day total of 281 (72-66-77-66). She had a hole-in-one at the par three second hole that year in Bryan, Texas.

The secret to success?

“I think the secret to success out here is patience,” said Coach Runion. “You’ve got to be patient, you’ve got to be smart, and you’ve got to be disciplined. I told the team after the practice round, we are going to hit over 1,100 golf shots this week. You’re not going to be perfect; you don’t need to be perfect, but you need to be patient and smart. Minimize the damage and when you have a position to be aggressive, take advantage of that as well.”

LSU will play with Kentucky of the SEC and Virginia of the ACC for the first two days of the championship, in the early-late wave this year. The Tigers will tee off at 7:47 a.m. PDT (9:47 a.m. Baton Rouge time) on Friday off hole No. 1.

Live scoring will be available at Scoreboard.clippd.com and there is pay-to-stream coverage on BabyGrande.com. Starting on Monday (May 27) coverage shifts to The Golf Channel. Updates during the round will be available on “X” at @LSUwomensgolf and @LSUKent.

(Release via LSU Athletics)