BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team will look to earn its first tournament victory of the season by traveling to Tampa, Fla., on Monday to compete in the Gary Koch/Cleveland Golf Invitational at Old Memorial Golf Club. The course will play to a par 72 and 7,028 yards for the championship.
LSU is one of seven SEC teams competing in the tournament, including host Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee and South Carolina. Rounding out the 15-team field is Central Florida, College of Charleston, Florida State, Georgia State, North Florida, Ohio State, Toledo and South Florida.
“It’s another very tough golf course and a solid field,” said LSU head coach Greg Jones. “All of the SEC teams are very sound squads, and Georgia State shot the lights out and won a tournament we were in. Everybody in this field is good, and this will be a real shootout. It will be a battle for position with only one team coming away happy, and I hope we’re the one.”
Senior Heath West, sophomores Chris Wells and Garrett Runion, and freshmen Brent Struthers and Beck Troutman will be in the lineup for the Tigers. West, Wells and Runion are making their fourth tournament appearance of the season, while Struthers and Troutman are competing in their second tournament.
“We’re just looking to find the right combination of five, and we’ll try a different five this time,” said Jones. “We’ll try some of the young guys and see how they do, and we’re looking to go get a nice finish and continue to prepare for what’s at the end of the season by playing tough golf courses against tough fields.”
Wells recorded his second top-10 finish of the season at the Windon Memorial Classic last week and leads the Tigers with a stroke average of 71.89 in nine rounds, including five rounds under par. West is second on the squad with a 73.00 stroke average in nine rounds and one top-10 finish.
Following their trip to Tampa, the Tigers will play in their first home tournament of the season at the University Club Intercollegiate, Oct. 25-26.