STATESBORO, Ga. — The LSU men’s golf team travels to the state of Georgia for the first time this season to compete in the 2005 Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational hosted by Georgia Southern University at Forest Heights Country Club. The course will play to a par 72 and 6,945 yards for the championship.
The tournament, which includes Friday’s practice round, gets underway Saturday morning with an 8 a.m. shotgun start. The teams will play 36 holes Saturday and a final 18 holes Sunday to decide the outcome.
Joining the Tigers in the 15-team field are 10 teams ranked in the latest Golfweek Top 25, including No. 3 Georgia, No. 7 Florida, No. 8 USC, No. 12 Auburn, No. 13 Tennessee, No. 16 Augusta State, No. 18 South Carolina, No. 19 Clemson, No. 22 Georgia Southern and No. 23 Minnesota. Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Ohio State round out the field.
“It’s an old event that has been played for many years, and typically it attracts a very strong field,” said LSU head coach Greg Jones. “I think you’ll find some teams in the top 10 and a lot in the top 20. It should make for an interesting event.”
Jones will play with a lineup of seniors Heath West and Jeff Riemann, sophomores Chris Wells and Garrett Runion, and freshman Beck Troutman. West, Wells and Runion have competed in every tournament this season for the Tigers and are making their eighth tournament appearance.
“We’ve really been working on Garrett Runion and Beck Troutman over the last couple of weeks to improve their games,” Jones said. “We’ve just been trying to get them some more shots in their bag so they can be more aggressive when the opportunity presents itself.”
Wells is coming off of his fourth top-10 finish of the season by placing in a tie for sixth with a 3-over par 219 in the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship one month ago. He is currently tied for third in the SEC in that category and leads the team with a 72.23 stroke average in 21 rounds.
West follows closely behind with a 72.62 stroke average, including two top-10 finishes of his own. Runion averages a 74.85 per round and shot the lowest round of the season for the Tigers with a 6-under 65 in the second round of the Mason Rudolph Intercollegiate on Sept. 27. This is the second-lowest round recorded in the SEC this season.
“We’ve been working on getting people better – working on weaknesses,” Jones said. “We want to play a little more aggressive as we move down the stretch and toward the end of the season. We’re really going to need to do that.”