BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s golf coach Greg Jones announced the signing of four golfers for the 2004-05 season on Monday.
The signees for next season are Jake Creel, Beck Troutman, Jared Mayfield, and Brent Struthers.
Creel is a native of Dothan, Ala., the same hometown as current All-SEC golfer Heath West. He recorded two top-10 finishes this past summer in American Junior Golf Association Tournament competition and placed third in the Future Master’s Tour.
“Jake is a good player and we hope, especially since he is also from Dothan, Ala., that he can be as good or even better than Heath West, and if he is then that will just make our program even better,” said Jones.
Troutman is a native of Fernwood, Miss., and is one of the top players in the south. Troutman is a recent winner of the HP Junior Classic and the Southern Junior Tournament and is currently ranked 32nd in the nation.
Mayfield, a native of Shreveport, won the 2002 Louisiana State Junior Champion and led Captain Shreve High School to the 2003 state title. Struthers, a native of Baton Rouge, is the brother of women’s golfer Rebecca Struthers. Struthers won seven high school matches last year. Jones said that Mayfield and Struthers are the top two players in the state. LSU signed the state’s top player from a year ago, Ruston’s Chad Bailey.
“Jake has a lot of national experience in tournaments and will be a good player for us,” said Jones.”
“Beck Troutman won the HP Classic on the AJGA Tour this past summer and also won the Southern Junior Amateur, and he is the best player in Mississippi and might be the best player in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana combined,” said Jones. “He is ranked in the top 30 nationally and is a big strong guy at 6-2 and about 270. He will be a good player for sure.”
“This is a good group that will provide depth for us for the future and will be go along with last year’s class,” said Jones. “We have signed seven outstanding freshmen in the last two classes that will provide us depth for the next two years.”
The Tigers will open the spring season on Jan. 31-Feb. 1 at the Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Fla. LSU won two tournaments in the fall, including the 2003 Country Club of Louisiana Intercollegiate.