March 22, 2016
By Chris Masters
BATON ROUGE, La. – Often times, experience can be the best teacher. The University of Notre Dame women’s golf team believes the lessons it learned at this week’s LSU Tiger Classic will prove highly beneficial during the latter stages of the season.
The Fighting Irish turned in their best round of the tournament on Tuesday, moving up to tie for 11th place (and one stroke out of an 18th consecutive top-10 finish) with a three-round total of 70-over par 934 (315-311-308) in blustery conditions on the challenging University Club course (par 72/6,247 yards) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“We just didn’t manage our games very well,” Notre Dame head coach Susan Holt said. “Our short games really let us down this tournament. We all know what we need to work on and we have a solid week to do just that.”
Senior captain Talia Campbell collected her seventh top-20 finish in eight events this year, tying for 14th place (228/+12) at the LSU Tiger Classic on Tuesday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Notre Dame’s experience showed in the individual standings, with the two Fighting Irish veterans in the starting lineup turning in the team’s best scores of the week.
Senior captain Talia Campbell (Dallas, Texas/Ursuline Academy) has been one of the program’s most consistent players since the day she set foot on campus and that continued at LSU, as she tied for 14th place in the 96-player field at 12-over par 228 (77-77-74). It was the Texan’s best performance in three trips to the LSU Tiger Classic.
Campbell now has placed in the top 20 seven times in eight events this year, as well as in 12 of the past 14 tournaments, dating back more than full calendar year. What’s more, it was Campbell’s 19th career team-leading finish, tying her with current Symetra Tour veteran Becca Huffer (2008-12) for second in Fighting Irish history.
Like Campbell, junior Jordan Ferreira (University Place, Wash./Bellarmine Prep) was no stranger to the LSU layout and it paid off as she tied for 31st place at 16-over par 232 (79-76-77). Ferreira was particularly successful on the University’s Club’s four par-5 holes, tying for second in the field by playing those holes in a combined four-under par during the tournament.
“Talia and Jordan both played pretty solid this week,” Holt said. “Talia’s 74 in the final round today was really impressive.”
Notre Dame’s three freshmen were making their first appearance at the tricky University Club course and that inexperience showed at times during the week, but so did flashes of promise on one of the toughest tracks the Fighting Irish will play all season.
Emma Albrecht (Ormond Beach, Fla./Father Lopez) wound up in a tie for 45th place at 19-over par 235 (79-79-77), closing strong on Tuesday with three birdies on her final five holes.
Maddie Rose Hamilton (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart Academy) tied for 56th place at 23-over par 239 (80-79-80), with her final round highlighted by an eagle on No. 14 (her fourth hole of the day), one of just five eagles carded by the field during the entire tournament. It also was Hamilton’s second eagle in her last three events, having also picked one up on her final hole at the Westbrook Spring Invitational on Feb. 21-22 in Peoria, Arizona.
Isabella DiLisio (Hatfield, Pa./Mount Saint Joseph Academy) rounded out the Notre Dame scoring in an 80th-place tie at 31-over par 247 (81-80-86).
Notre Dame will be off for the next 10 days before heading to suburban Greensboro, North Carolina, to compete in the Bryan National Collegiate, which will be played April 1-3 at the Bryan National Golf Course. The tournament, which is the final tune-up for the Fighting Irish before the ACC Championship in mid-April, will be co-hosted by Wake Forest and UNC Greensboro, with live scoring available through the Golfstat web site (golfstat.com), and in-progress updates also provided through the Fighting Irish women’s golf Twitter feed (@NDwomensGolf).
For more information on the Notre Dame women’s golf program, visit the women’s golf page of the official Fighting Irish athletics web site (UND.com/ndwomensgolf), sign up to follow the Notre Dame women’s golf Twitter feed (@NDwomensGolf) or register for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the “Fan Center” pulldown menu on the front page at UND.com.
LSU Tiger Classic
March 20-22, 2016
University Club (par 72/6,247 yards)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
FINAL TEAM SCORES (54-hole totals): 1. Duke 881 (293-296-292); 2. Arkansas 897 (299-302-296); 3. Tulane 910 (305-308-297); 4. Wake Forest 912 (311-298-303); 5. (tie) North Carolina State 920 (311-297-312) and LSU 920 (305-310-305); 7. Houston 923 (307-301-315); 8. Tennessee 924 (302-301-321); 9. Mississippi State 929 (307-313-309); 10. Kentucky 933 (307-312-314); 11. (tie) NOTRE DAME 934 (315-311-308) and UNC Wilmington 934 (310-312-312); 13. North Carolina 943 (316-316-311); 14. Auburn 951 (326-312-313); 15. Denver 958 (321-324-313); 16. Ole Miss 961 (320-323-318); 17. Oklahoma 967 (319-322-326).
TOP EIGHT INDIVIDUALS PLUS NOTRE DAME GOLFERS (of 96): 1. Celine Boutier (DU) 208 (67-72-69); 2. (tie) Madison Opfer (TU) 222 (77-72-73) and Virginia Elena Carta (DU) 222 (75-77-70); 4. (tie) Maria Fassi (UA) 223 (74-74-75) and Regina Plasencia (UA) 223 (75-75-73); 6. Emily Penttila (TU) 224 (74-79-71); 7. Kayla Thompson (UNCW) 225 (72-78-75); 8. Blakesly Warren (UT) 226 (72-73-81); 14. (tie) Talia Campbell (ND) 228 (77-77-74); 31. (tie) Jordan Ferreira (ND) 232 (79-76-77); 45. (tie) Emma Albrecht (ND) 235 (79-79-77); 56. (tie) Maddie Rose Hamilton (ND) 239 (80-79-80); 80. (tie) Isabella DiLisio (ND) 247 (81-80-86).
– ND –
Chris Masters, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2001 and coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s golf and women’s basketball programs. A native of San Francisco, California, Masters is a 1996 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, earned his master’s degree from Kansas State University in 1998, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).