TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — LSU senior Chris Wells finished his round strong with birdies on three of his last five holes as he fired his lowest round of the spring season Tuesday to lead the men’s golf team to an eighth-place finish at the Seminole Intercollegiate at Golden Eagle Country Club.
Wells started on the back nine and got off to a fast start with a pair of birdies on holes No. 10 and No. 12 before making the turn at even-par for his round. He followed a birdie on the first hole with a bogey on the second before catching fire down the stretch with birdies on No. 5, No. 8 and No. 9 to finish the day with a 3-under par 69.
The Mobile, Ala., native earned his best finish since tying for sixth place at the prestigious Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate in October as he finished in a four-way tie for third place with a three-round total of 3-under 213. He led the Tigers to an eighth-place finish in the team standings as they posted a 54-hole team total of 23-over 887.
“It feels good to be playing well again, and it gives me a lot of confidence that I can still go out there and shoot some low scores,” Wells said. “I hit my irons better than I have the last couple of weeks, and that was definitely a big reason why I was able to play the way I did. It’s great to be back in the Top 10 and it gives me confidence moving forward this spring.”
The Tigers made dramatic improvements in each round of the tournament after posting a team score of 15-over 303 in Sunday’s opening round. They combined for a 5-over 293 in the second round on Monday before closing out the tournament with a team-low round of 3-over 291 in Tuesday’s final round.
“It just speaks of the effort level and competitiveness that the guys showed to bounce back after what they did in the first round to finish on a positive note these last two rounds,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “We’re still missing a fourth score in each round it seems in order to be competitive in the standings each week, but it has not been for a lack of effort and I am confident that they will continue to show that as we move forward.”
Junior Brian Noonan continued his steady play as he followed his 2-under par round of 70 on Monday with an even-par 72 in Tuesday’s final round to earn his team-leading fourth Top 20 finish of the season. Noonan, who also finished his round strong as he was 1-under on his last four holes, tied for 16th in the individual standings with a 54-hole score of 4-over 220.
Freshman Bryant Lach and junior Beck Troutman continued LSU’s trend of finishing strong as Lach birdied three of his last four holes for a 1-over 73, while Troutman finished the day at 2-under on his last five holes en route to a 5-over 77. Lach finished with a 54-hole score of 13-over 229 with Troutman following at 22-over 238. Freshman Brent Blaum finished two shots clear of both as he totaled an 11-over 227 for the three-day event.
Auburn extended its one-stroke lead heading into the final round to five strokes over tournament runner-up North Carolina as the Tigers claimed the team championship with a three-round total of 1-over 865. All-American Rhys Davies of East Tennessee State also extended his one-stroke lead after firing a 3-under 69 to win by two shots over Zach Sucher of UAB with a 6-under 210.
The Tigers will break for 11 days before returning to the course with their annual trip to Forest Heights Country Club in Statesboro, Ga., to compete in the prestigious Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational from March 17-18. They will then follow one week later with a trip to Awendaw, S.C., to compete in the third-annual Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate from March 25-27.
SEMINOLE INTERCOLLEGIATE ? FINAL ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 864)
1. Auburn 290-288-287 ? 865 +1; 2. North Carolina 296-281-293 ? 870 +6; 3. Florida State 300-286-289 ? 875 +11; t4. East Tennessee State 302-291-285 ? 878 +14; t4. UAB 295-292-291 ? 878 +14; 6. Virginia 302-292-286 ? 880 +16; 7. Ole Miss 297-289-299 ? 885 +21; 8. LSU 303-293-291 ? 887 +23; t9. Vanderbilt 301-296-292 ? 889 +25; t9. Northwestern 294-290-305 ? 889 +25; 11. Central Florida 299-294-299 ? 892 +28; 12. Mississippi State 290-299-305 ? 894 +30; 13. College of Charleston 293-303-300 ? 896 +32; 14. NC State 304-296-297 ? 897 +33; 15. Toledo 313-300-307 ? 920 +56
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 216)
1. Rhys Davies, East Tennessee State, 73-68-69 ? 210 -6; 2. Zach Sucher, UAB, 69-74-69 ? 212 -4; t3. Chris Wells, LSU, 73-71-69 ? 213 -3; t3. t3. Patton Kizzire, Auburn, 72-70-71 ? 213 -3; t3. Glenn Northcutt, Auburn, 73-74-66 ? 213 -3; t3. Chris Rogers, Ole Miss, 70-73-70 ? 213 -3; 7. Martin Ureta, North Carolina, 73-72-69 ? 214 -2; t8. Reed Darsie, North Carolina, 72-70-74 ? 216 E; t8. Noah Goldman, Mississippi State, 70-73-73 ? 216 E; t10. Luke List, Vanderbilt, 71-77-71 ? 219 +3; t10. Garrett Osborn, UAB, 74-71-74 ? 219 +3; t10. Matthew Savage, Florida State, 72-76-71 ? 219 +3; t10. Nicholas Smith, Florida State, 73-70-76 ? 219 +3; t10. Kyle Stough, Virginia, 76-70-73 ? 219 +3
LSU SCORES
T3. Chris Wells 73-71-69 ? 213 -3
T16. Brian Noonan 78-70-72 ? 220 +4
T50. Brent Blaum 75-73-79 ? 227 +11
T60. Bryant Lach 77-79-73 ? 229 +13
72. Beck Troutman 81-80-77 ? 238 +22