Mississippi State’s women’s golf team finds itself in unfamiliar territory as the Lady Bulldogs will be hosting a tournament for the first time in school history. Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss., is the site for the first annual Old Waverly Bulldog Invitational, which will take place Monday through Wednesday.
The tournament will feature 10 teams from six different conferences, including Arkansas and Kentucky representing the SEC and Tulane, Memphis and Southern Miss representing Conference USA. The Big East will have South Florida, and Murray State will represent the Ohio Valley Conference. The Atlantic Sun will have Kennesaw State, and South Alabama will compete from the Sun Belt Conference.
According to third year head coach Ginger Brown-Lemm, hosting a collegiate golf tournament is something that has been in the works for some time and is something she said will possibly turn the page for this golf program. 
“The first thing that comes to mind is ‘Hail State.’ One of my main goals when I got here was not only to kind of stop the bleeding of the morale and kind of getting beat up with the performance problems, but to host a home event,” she said. “It took a couple of years to get there, but we’re there and for us to be able to have such a fantastic facility at Old Waverly to market what Mississippi State stands for and what our golf program is becoming, is a blessing.”
The field in this tournament will be an early test for the Lady Bulldogs considering the schools represented won over six combined tournaments last year. However, Brown-Lemm said State will have a slight advantage heading into this tournament because the team is familiar with the layout of the course and have had the opportunity to practice at Old Waverly several times.
“It’s an incredible advantage for us because Old Waverly so happens to be one of the most challenging golf courses in the southeast,” she said. “I can tell you it is an intimidating golf course aesthetically, so that is where a lot of our advantage comes into play.”
Sophomore Ally McDonald, who qualified for the NCAA West Regional and was the first State player since 2007 to do so, is returning this season. Along with McDonald, sophomores Rica Tse and Elena Warren are back after finishing last year together as the sixth-ranked freshman class in the nation. Junior Mary Langdon Gallagher has played in 19 consecutive tournaments, which the most on the team.
Joining the team this year in Brown-Lemm’s second year of recruiting are three incoming freshmen: Blaise Carabello of Houston, Texas, Logan Chaney of Scottsboro, Ala., and Gabi Oubre of Mobile, Ala. McDonald said she thinks it is a plus for the freshmen to experience their first collegiate tournament on familiar grounds.
“I think it’s really good that we’re starting the season off at home,” McDonald said. “It’s always good for the freshmen to be able to experience their first collegiate tournament somewhere that they are used to playing, and hopefully, we will come out with a win.”
The Lady Bulldogs will be looking to improve on last year’s round average of 308.44, which was the lowest in six years. However, in years past, Brown-Lemm’s teams have set more than 60 all-time school records and have seen its ranking improve 50 spots, according to “Golfstat.” The Lady Bulldogs had three top-10 finishes last season, and Gallagher said the team is looking to gain confidence with a fast start at Old Waverly.
“We’re excited coming into this tournament; we want to make a good showing not only for ourselves, but for the fans and our support group that will be out there,” she said. “We need to have a good start and bring confidence into our next tournament.”
The first round will begin with a split tee time at 9:30 a.m. Monday. Second round tee time begins at 8:30 a.m. with a 9/11 tribute at 8:00 a.m. The third round begins with a shotgun start at 9:30 a.m. on Wedneday. The third round will be followed by the closing ceremony and the awards presentation.