BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team travels to the state of South Carolina on Sunday for the first time this season to compete in the inaugural Hootie at Bull’s Bay Intercollegiate at Bull’s Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, S.C. The course will play to a par 71 and 7,166 yards for the championship.
Clemson, South Carolina and the College of Charleston will serve as tri-hosts for the event. The tournament has been set up to support the Hootie and the Blowfish Foundation, which benefits the children of South Carolina through music education and supports school music programs nationwide.
LSU and South Carolina join five other SEC teams in the 15-team field, including Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Rounding out the field are Augusta State, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest.
“We will have to do our homework in the practice round since this a course we have not seen before,” said LSU head coach Greg Jones. “We have to see the whole golf course and pay attention to where they may put the flags. We’re just going to have to experiment and see if we can take advantage of a few holes.”
Jones will play with a lineup of seniors Heath West, Jeff Riemann and Brandon Aydlett, sophomore Chris Wells and freshman Beck Troutman. West and Wells are making their ninth tournament appearance this season, while Troutman is making his seventh and Riemann will make his sixth.
Aydlett returns to the lineup for the first time since competing in the University Club Intercollegiate on October 25-26, and it will be his third tournament appearance this season. The Tiger senior has been out of action after suffering a broken collar bone during the Christmas holidays.
“We were counting on him being a contributor this spring, and we’re glad to have him back in the lineup,” Jones said. “He was in the lineup when we won all of our three tournaments last year, and I’m looking forward to him getting back into some competition and giving this team some experience out there.”
Wells continues to lead LSU with a 72.54 stroke average in 24 rounds, while West follows closely behind with a 72.91 stroke average. Wells also leads the team and is tied for third in the SEC with four top-10 finishes on the season. West earned the best finish of the season for the Tigers by tying for second place in the SunTrust Gator Invitational with a 5-under par 211.
Troutman is coming off of his best effort of the season with a tie for 19th in the prestigious Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational in Statesboro, Ga., last week. The true freshman fired a 5-over par 221 for the tournament, including a pair of even-par 72s in the first and third rounds.
“I’m looking for us to start getting sharp,” Jones said. “We’d like to see everybody play well at the same time. Our guys need to start polishing up their games as we head down the stretch toward the SEC Tournament.”