TAMPA, Fla. — The LSU men’s golf team will begin play at the Gary Koch/Cleveland Golf Intercollegiate with two rounds of golf on Monday in Tampa, Fla.
The event, hosted by both the University of Florida and Central Florida, will consist of 54 holes. The first two rounds and Tuesday’s final round will be played at Old Memorial Golf Course. Old Memorial is a par-72 course and its yardage is 7,236.
The Tigers are coming off a 14th place finish at the Adams Cup of Newport Oct. 3. LSU placed ahead of just three teams in Rhode Island, but fired the best score of the tournament’s final round, a 5-over 285. An unusual bad second round prohibited the Tigers from having a chance to win the tournament. LSU shot a 32-over 312 in round two after posting a 291 in the first round.
“If we put the first and third round of the tournament together, then we would have finished in second place behind New Mexico, which is one the nation’s top teams”, said LSU head coach Greg Jones.
Junior Garrett Prather finished in 34th place at the Adams Cup, firing a final-round 72. Redshirt freshman Jason Horrell shot a 71, and true freshman Tucker Ervin fired a 70 in the last round. In two tournaments this season Jones has used eight different players, including three freshman. On Monday, Jones will go with a lineup of senior Nathan Goulding, Prather, sophomore John Humphries, Horrell and true freshman Heath West. West, from Dothan, Ala., made his Tiger debut in LSU’s first tournament of the season, the Cleveland Golf/Kiawah Island Intercollegiate in September.
“This tournament is real important for us because we need to get back on a consistent path,” Jones said. “This event is also important for us because we play a lot of team from our district and it would be nice to pick up a win against them.”
Last season LSU finished third out of 15 teams at the Gary Koch. The Tigers shot a 3-over 867 total, finishing behind only conference rivals Florida and Ole Miss. Craig Taylor fired a career-low 6-under 66 to finish second.
“We need to really focus mentally in this tournament because of what happened in the last one. We played well in all but one round, so we just want to shoot some low scores and string good rounds together.”
The field will consist of 14 teams for the tournament. Three Southeastern Conference teams will join LSU in Tampa. Defending champion Florida, Ole Miss and Kentucky, as well as Florida State and North Florida will compete for the title.
LSU’s next tournament following the Gary Koch is the 2001 Coca-Cola Tennessee Tournament of Champions Oct. 22-23 at Knoxville, Tenn. LSU will attempt to defend their 2000 title against 15 teams. LSU shot a 13-under 851 last season, and senior All-American Alan Morgan claimed medalist honors by shooting a 7-under 209. The course for the tournament has been changed, Tennessee announced Saturday. The tournament will be held at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville as opposed to Holston Hills Country Club.
LSU will return home to Baton Rouge following the trip to Tennessee for the ninth-annual Country Club of Louisiana Intercollegiate Oct. 29-30 at the Country Club of Louisiana, the Tigers final tournament of the fall season.