BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team is set to compete in its second tournament of the season Monday in the inaugural Shoal Creek Intercollegiate hosted by UAB at Shoal Creek Country Club in Birmingham, Ala.
The course will play to a par 72 and 7,200 yards for the 54-hole championship. The 15-team field features Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and LSU from the Southeastern Conference, as well as UAB, Birmingham-Southern, Central Florida, East Tennessee State, Florida State, Georgia State, N.C. State, North Florida, Notre Dame, SMU and Toledo.
LSU head coach Chuck Winstead will play with a lineup of senior Andrew Lanahan, juniors Chris Wells and Garrett Runion, sophomore Beck Troutman and freshman Jarrod Barsamian. Wells, Troutman and Barsamian are each making their second tournament appearance of the season, while Lanahan and Runion are making their first.
The Tigers are coming off a seventh-place finish at the Coca-Cola Tournament of Champions two weeks ago at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tenn. Wells earned his first top-20 finish of the season with a tie for 18th, while Troutman tied for 44th and Barsamian tied for 52nd.
“We have been trying to improve one day at a time in all facets of the game with a continued focus on course management and improving our short game,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “We want to compete to the best of our ability in this tournament, and we will do that by focusing on the task at hand and playing each round one shot at a time.”
Shoal Creek Country Club is a Jack Nicklaus signature design that is ranked 49th on Golf Digest’s list of “America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses” and the No. 1 course in the state of Alabama. Winstead knows his players must be prepared to face the many challenges this course presents if they are to find success.
“Shoal Creek Country Club is a world-class venue,” Winstead said. “It is a Jack Nicklaus design that has hosted two PGA Championships over the years. This course will certainly present a challenge to our guys, and we must be prepared to meet that challenge.”
LSU will play two rounds Monday with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m., and a final round will be played Tuesday to determine the championship.
After returning from the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate, the Tigers travel to Tampa, Fla., to compete in the Gary Koch/Cleveland Golf Invitational at Old Memorial Golf Club, Oct. 11-12.