BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team looks to build on its solid sixth-place finish at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship earlier this month when it travels to Gainesville, Fla., to compete in the 28th annual SunTrust Gator Invitational at the University of Florida Golf Course.
Members of the 15-team field will get their first look at the course during Friday’s practice round as it will play to a par 70 and 6,800 yards for the weekend. The first and second rounds of the tournament will be played Saturday with a final round scheduled for Sunday to determine the tournament championship.
The Tigers will face another strong field as six teams enter the tournament ranked in the latest Golfstat Top 25, including No. 4 Florida, No. 5 Georgia State, No. 11 Tennessee, No. 13 South Carolina, No. 14 Wake Forest and No. 15 Kentucky. Alabama, UAB, Central Florida, Florida State, Georgia Southern, North Florida, Ohio State and Purdue round out the list.
“We’re going up against another strong field with a lot of teams we are very familiar with,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “This will be another good test for our guys to see where their games are compared to some of the top teams in our region. The play from each team should be a little sharper this weekend given that we’re a little bit later into the spring season.
“If we can stay focused on our preparation for this event and what we’re trying to accomplish by staying in the present and playing one shot at a time then we can have a good tournament.”
Winstead will play with the same lineup as the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate with senior Andrew Lanahan, junior Chris Wells and sophomores Brian Noonan, Brent Struthers and Beck Troutman getting the nod for the Tigers. Wells is making his seventh tournament appearance of the season and 19th straight overall, while Noonan and Struthers are making their sixth of the season and Lanahan is making his fifth.
Troutman is making his seventh tournament appearance of the season and 17th consecutive dating back to last year despite suffering from tendonitis in his left wrist for much of the past week. Troutman, who is tied for the team lead with Wells with a 73.9 stroke average, has missed the last three days of practice but is scheduled to participate in the team’s practice round Friday.
“Beck is feeling pretty good right now,” Winstead said. “He hasn’t practiced with the team the last few days, but he hit some balls yesterday and seems to be fine. He received treatment yesterday and is good to go for this weekend. Something we’ll have to keep an eye on is how he responds to playing 72 holes in three days.”
Troutman, Lanahan and Wells are each coming off top-20 finishes in the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate as Troutman led the way for the Tigers with a tie for 11th. Lanahan and Wells each tied for 19th, while Noonan tied for 41st and Struthers tied for 60th. Winstead believes his team has an opportunity to build on its sixth-place finish in its first tournament of the spring season, which saw the Tigers earn victories over four ranked opponents.
“The guys have had a good week and a half of preparation since they got back from Sawgrass, and we’re looking to build on what we accomplished there,” Winstead said. “We’re going to be facing many of the same teams from that tournament in the Gator, so we know what kind of competition we’re competing with.”
Winstead said that the Tigers will not only face a major challenge by competing against such a strong field but also playing a course unlike anything they normally see.
“This course is a Donald Ross design that requires you to put the ball in the fairway to have success,” Winstead said. “It’s not that long of a course as compared to what we normally play, obviously, but it does present some challenges. It has tree-lined fairways, and we need to put the ball in the fairway off the tee to put ourselves in position to score. It’s something we’ve prepared for and something I know our guys can go out there and execute.”
The Gator Invitational has been dominated by tournament host Florida for much of its illustrious history with the Gators claiming 19 team titles, including last season’s eight-stroke victory over Wake Forest. However, LSU has had its share of success in this event with three team titles, including its most recent championship in 2002.
The Tigers are paired with Central Florida and Florida State in the tournament’s opening rounds as play will begin Saturday with a shotgun start at 7 a.m. CST. No live scoring will be available for this event. The Golf Channel is scheduled to tape highlights of Sunday’s final round with broadcast information still yet to be determined.