BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team will host the third-annual LSU Spring Invitational Friday through Sunday at the University Club in Baton Rouge.
The Tigers, the two-time defending tournament champions, will welcome 17 teams to the University Club this weekend.
The tournament begins on Friday at 7:52 a.m. when all six LSU individuals will tee off. Mississippi State, Arkansas State, and Tulane will be the first group of teams to tee off on the front nine at 8:16 a.m. Jacksonville State, Memphis, and Central Florida will tee off on the back nine at the same time.
LSU is paired with Georgia Southern and Furman and will tee off at 8:56 on the front nine while Middle Tennessee, Lamar, and Arkansas-Little Rock go off the back. Maryland, Rhode Island, and South Florida will tee off on the front nine at 9:44 a.m. while Louisiana-Lafayette, South Alabama, and College of Charleston go off at the time on the back nine.
The 18 team-field will play one round each day with final-round action on Sunday. The tee times are the same all three days.
Texas-Arlington was also invited yet could not make it to Baton Rouge due to inclement weather in the Dallas area this week.
LSU will again use another lineup this weekend, their seventh in seven tournaments. True freshman David Pollet, a Baton Rouge native, and senior Justin Sevier will each make their LSU debut on Friday, as Pollet will play in the Tigers’ starting lineup while Sevier will play as an individual.
Senior John Humphries, sophomore Heath West, freshman Aaron Smith, and Tucker Ervin will join Pollet in the starting five.
Jeff Riemann, David Aitchison, Neil Self, Adam Swope, and Jason Horrell will all play as individuals, as all but on player on the roster will see action this weekend.
Humphries leads the team in stroke average (72.4), tournaments (6), rounds played (17), top-10 finishes (2), and top-20 finishes with five.
West will play in his sixth tournament, Riemann in his fifth, and Smith, Aitchison, and Horrell will all be playing in their fourth this season.
“I am excited about our lineup, we are going to play David Pollet, he will make his debut,” said LSU head coach Greg Jones. He is a Baton Rouge native and will be playing in his first college event. He plays this course well and I think this is a great environment to get him started.
“I am excited about the opportunity to have so many players play, and we are going to play six individuals, so that gives them a chance to tee it up in the heat of competition so we are looking forard to it. We hope the weather will hold out but the course is wet so it will play long which I think will help us in the long run. You know the last two tournaments at home we have only played one round (2002 CCLA canceled earlier this season), and so they really have not had a chance to show their stuff. We are still paying a penalty for not being able to play our home event because we lost a lot of key wins because of it,” Jones said.
LSU has one the first two Spring Invitational titles, but last season’s edition was shortened to just one round due to poor weather, as the Tigers fired a 9-under par 279 to finish ahead of Tulsa by two strokes. West and Humphries tied for medalist honors as each fired a 4-under par 68 in their lone round.
The Tigers shot a 9-over 873 in 2001 to win the inaugural championship.
“It is nice to be able to play at home because the guys feel more comfortable here but there is also a little added pressure because your friends, and girlfriends, and your parents are going to be here,” said Jones. “Some professors or faculty members may even show up, but that is what is all about and that is why you come to LSU, to live and play in that environment.
“We are excited about our home event and this is a strong field. It is not loaded with SEC or ACC schools, but if you look at how these teams did last year, there are a lot of regional teams here, like South Alabama, Georgia Southern, Lamar, College of Charleston. They are all very sound teams and are all very capable of winning this tournament.”
The University Club is a par-72 course with a yardage of 7,274.
2003 LSU SPRING INVITATIONAL FIELD
LSU
Arkansas-Little Rock
Arkansas State
Central Florida
College of Charleston
Furman
Georgia Southern
Jacksonville State
Lamar
Louisiana-Lafayette
Maryland
Memphis
Middle Tennessee State
Mississippi State
Rhode Island
South Alabama
South Florida
Tulane