Pauline-Roussin Bouchard (South Carolina Gamecocks Online photo)
What do you do when you have the best season in South Carolina Gamecocks women’s golf history, make First Team All-SEC, but your first shot at the conference championship is taken away by a pandemic?
You top the rest of the conference a year later, and that’s exactly what Pauline-Roussin Bouchard did in the first three days of the 2021 SEC Championships.
The South Carolina sophomore stunned the competition, earning an individual title by putting together a magnificent 67-67-65 in the first three days at Greystone Golf & Country Club.
“Since we didn’t have the SEC Championships last year, I was thrilled about this week,” Roussin-Bouchard said in a video via the South Carolina Women’s Golf Twitter account.
Roussin-Bouchard’s ruthless campaign for the individual title seemed to mimic a recency effect, where Roussin-Bouchard has won every other collegiate tournament she’s played in her sophomore year -- equaling four out of eight individual titles.
She steadily opened her round and closed it out even better, with a bogey-free front nine and a smooth eagle to conclude the par-5 18th.
Only one player in the loaded field wanted it nearly as much as Roussin-Bouchard, and chased her lead consistently through every round, even finishing a stroke better in the very last: LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad.
On a hot tournament streak of her own, Lindblad’s 64 launched her team to the very top, finishing 46-under, a dominating nine strokes ahead of South Carolina. Her bogey-free final round featured eight birdies, but her smooth sailing wasn’t enough to topple Roussin-Bouchard.
The SEC Championship’s stroke play team finishes determine the final eight teams who advance to match play for the weekend. The quarterfinalists face off on Saturday, with matchups listed below.
LSU (1) vs, Arkansas (8)
South Carolina (2) vs. Alabama (7)
Auburn (3) vs. Vanderbilt (6)
Ole Miss (4) vs. 5. Miss. St. (5)
With a thrilling chase for the individual title in the books, there’s no telling how SEC match play ends up. No. 4-ranked Ole Miss will defend its 2019 match play title, where it mightily defeated South Carolina. But an even stronger SEC this go-around could be the showdown the conference has been patiently awaiting.
An action-packed weekend’s Sunday, April 18 conclusion will air on SEC Network.
ABOUT THE
SEC Women's Championship
54-hole stroke play tournament crowns an individual
champion, then four teams advance to match play
to
determine the SEC team champion.
View Complete Tournament Information