BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team is eager to build upon a successful fall season when it begins its spring season Sunday at the 16th-annual Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
The course, which is the former site of PGA Tour stop The Player’s Championship and the host of one of the premier tournaments in college golf, will play to a par 72 and 6,985 yards for the championship.
“I know the guys are really excited to get back into tournament play,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “We’re ready to get back into competition after such a long break. The biggest challenge for our guys will be to stay patient and go over there and have some fun, especially on a course like this.”
The Tigers, who earned their first tournament victory of the season at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate in September, join an impressive 15-team field that includes seven teams currently ranked in the top 30 of the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.
Joining LSU and tournament host North Florida are No. 4 Florida, No. 5 UCLA, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 9 Georgia State, No. 26 Coastal Carolina, No. 29 Auburn, No. 30 South Carolina, Alabama, UAB, Mercer, Missouri, Texas-Arlington and Texas Tech.
The Gators made a clean sweep of the tournament’s top honors last season with a five-stroke victory over Alabama in the team competition and senior All-American Matt Every claiming medalist honors by one stroke over North Florida’s Tyler Brown.
Junior Chris Wells and sophomore Beck Troutman are each making their team-leading sixth tournament appearance of the season for the Tigers, while sophomores Brian Noonan and Brent Struthers are making their fifth and senior Andrew Lanahan is making his fourth.
Lanahan leads the team with a 73.4 stroke average, while Wells and Troutman follow closely behind with an average of 73.5 and 73.6 strokes per round, respectively. Lanahan has earned two top-20 finishes in his three tournament appearances, and Wells leads the team with three top-20 finishes overall. Troutman displayed his potential in the fall season by earning two top-five finishes and a team-leading six rounds of par or better.
“We’re prepared to go into this event and compete with the teams we will face,” Winstead said. “The guys have prepared well, and we’re fortunate to have had very good weather to practice in for the most part. We anticipate the golf course to be in good shape as well. Sawgrass will be a good test for us to get this spring season started.”
Winstead said he believes the team has the mindset it needs to not only find success this week, but as it builds momentum heading into the postseason.
“Relative to the approach this week, the guys still need to be patient,” Winstead said. “They need to be patient with themselves, stay in the moment and play each shot one at a time. It’s an old clich?, but it’s the way to be successful.”
The Tigers are paired with UAB and Texas Tech in the first round with tee times beginning at 7:30 a.m. CST. The tournament’s second round will be played Monday with a final round scheduled for Tuesday to determine the championship. Live scoring of the event can be found at www.golfstat.com.