The start of round one was delayed by fog until almost 9 a.m. Therefore, results will not be available until 3 p.m. and the second round may not be completed due to darkness. Please check back for updates.
BATON ROUGE — It was the inaugural year of the Country Club of Louisiana Intercollegiate in 1993 when the LSU men’s golf team last won the event. The past few years, just trying to be in contention for the final round has been the best the Tigers could hope for. But this year appears different.
With a strong field on hand for this year’s CCLA Intercollegiate which begins at 7:30 a.m. Monday with a shotgun start, LSU Coach Greg Jones feels this is the year for his Tiger team to make a splash again on the national map and a win in this event would be a great way to close out a very strong fall season.
“It is a talented field,” said the second-year LSU coach. “But I feel we are as talented as any other team. Playing at home is a big advantage for us. It is great to be able to stay at home and be comfortable. It fires these guys up to be able to play at home. They know this course well and like playing here.”
This year’s field features 15 teams, including eight ranked in the latest GolfWeek/Sagarin Performance Index. Alabama-Birmingham is sixth in the index with a 12-9 record against Top 50 teams this season. Other top 50 teams in the field are 26th-ranked Augusta State, the 28th-ranked host Tigers, Tennessee (29), Auburn (31), Mississippi (45), College of Charleston (48) and Vanderbilt (50).
The rest of the teams in the field include: Arkansas, Florida State, Georgia State, Memphis, Mississippi State, Southern Miss and Tulsa. The Golden Hurricanes are coached by former LSU men’s golf coach Bill Brogden, who was in Baton Rouge for five years, winning 11 team titles with the Tigers.
The Tigers have one tournament victory this season at the Tournament of Champions in Knoxville, a third and a fourth place finish to show on the fall ledger.
“I am looking for consistency each time we play,” said Jones. “I always look for improvement and for us to be consistent. Our performances so far this year have given us the confidence we need to play consistently the rest of the year. I think so far our fall season has been excellent. We had a great victory in September in Tennessee and had a couple of other good tournaments. We have been pretty consistent and competitive this year.”
LSU will go with a team lineup of Craig Taylor, Alan Morgan, John Humphries, Billy Dressler and Nathan Goulding. Garrett Prather, Michael Beckers and Chip Lee will play in the individual portion of the competition.
Goulding will be seeing his first playing time of the season. “Nathan was a hot-shot junior college player,” said Jones. “He has made some adjustments to get himself ready to play. He has worked hard, improved a lot, and deserves to play.”
UAB sophomore Graeme McDowell is the top ranked player in the individual Sagarin rankings at No. 16 in the nation, averaging 71.2 strokes per round with two top 10s. Brandt Snedeker of Vanderbilt is ranked 27th and Morgan of LSU is the top ranked Tiger in 42nd with a 13-10 record against players ranked in the top 50.
Morgan is averaging 71.42 strokes per round. Humphries for LSU is averaging 72.22 for his nine rounds of play, while Taylor is at 72.78.
The first 36-holes of the tournament will be played on Monday with play continuing until about 4:30 p.m. The final round will begin at 8 a.m. with the leaders to begin teeing off at approximately 9:20 a.m.
Results will be posted on LSUsports.net after all three rounds. Please check back approximately 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Monday, and 3 p.m. on Tuesday.