BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team is set to tee it up in one of the most prestigious tournaments in college golf as they travel to Birmingham, Ala., on Monday to compete in the 21st-annual Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate at Old Overton Club.
The course will play to a par-71 and 6,936 yards for a championship that features one of the strongest fields of the college season with five teams ranked in the latest Golfweek Top 25. The Tigers join tournament host and No. 3 Alabama, No. 7 Georgia State, No. 9 Purdue, No. 13 East Tennessee State, No. 24 BYU, Arizona, Auburn, Texas, Texas Tech, Tulsa and UAB.
“We’re definitely excited to compete in an event with the prestige of the Jerry Pate,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “We’ll be playing a great golf course against a tremendous field, and it should be a great experience for our guys this week. I know they’re all looking forward to the challenge.”
Winstead has elected to compete with the same lineup as in the season opener two weeks ago at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate as senior Chris Wells, juniors Brian Noonan and Beck Troutman, sophomore Jarrod Barsamian and freshman Brent Blaum will each make their second tournament appearance of the season.
Noonan is coming off of the best performance of his LSU career as he earned a second-place finish in the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate with a 54-hole score of 2-under 214, including a career low 4-under 68 in the second round. Noonan’s previous best finish was a tie for 36th in the Coca-Cola Tournament of Champions in September of last year.
“This should be a great experience for the guys to go out there and have a lot of fun competing against a very strong field,” Winstead said. “We look forward to some great fall weather over the next two days in a great college golf tournament.”
The nationally-ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets captured the team title a year ago by six strokes over in-state rival Georgia with a 54-hole total of 24-under 828 with tournament host Alabama finishing in fourth place at 8-under 844. UAB junior Garrett Osborn claimed medalist honors with a 16-under 197, including a 9-under 62 in the opening round.
The Tigers follow their appearance in the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate with a trip to Edmond, Okla., to compete in the inaugural Oklahoma Intercollegiate at historic Oak Tree Golf Club from Oct. 15-16 in their last tournament of the fall season.