GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The LSU men’s golf team shot a 21-over par 566 on Saturday afternoon at the 2002 SunTrust Gator Invitational to finish in a tie for third place after two rounds of play.
The Tigers finished the first round with a 9-over 289 but came back to fire a 3-under 277 in round two to jump from sixth to third place. Alabama Birmingham, winners of the 2001 Country Club of Louisiana Intercollegiate lead the field after one day. The Blazers shot a 556 total and lead the tournament host and defending champions Florida Gators by nine strokes.
LSU and Augusta State are tied for third, one stroke behind the Gators.
Georgia State is in fifth place, four strokes behind the Tigers and ASU.
UAB’s Graeme McDowell leads all individuals after two rounds, posting an 8-under 132 on Saturday. ASU’s Scott Jamieson is in second place, three strokes behind McDowell. LSU’s Nathan Goulding is tied for third place with Florida’s Camilo Villegas at 4-under par. Goulding shot a 1-under 69 in round one and followed that with a 3-under 67 in the second round.
Freshman Heath West fired a 1-over 141 on Saturday to finish the first two rounds tied for 11th. John Humphries shot a 5-over 145 including a second-round 72. Jason Horrell is in 46th place at 8-over par, and Garrett Prather is tied for 60th place with four others at 11-over par.
LSU finished last year’s tournament more than 30 strokes behind Florida, but a strong second round has the Tigers in position to have a shot to win the Gator for the first time since the 1987-88 season.
“We got off to a real slow start today in the first round, wasting some shots and playing sloppy, but we recovered,” said LSU head coach Greg Jones. “We made some mistakes but they are correctable. We have some work to do tomorrow if we want to finish this the way we should.”
The Tigers are looking to win their first tournament of the season before heading to the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship in two weeks at Ponte Vedra, Fla.
The final round of the tournament will begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday at the University of Florida Golf Course.