GREENSBORO, Ga. — Senior All-SEC standout Chris Wells is in position to earn a top-10 finish in his final tournament appearance as an LSU Tiger as he is tied for 14th place after two rounds at the 2007 Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Plantation.
Wells ? a two-time All-SEC selection from Mobile, Ala. ? fired rounds of 3-under 69 and 1-over 73 on Sunday at the Oconee Course to finish the day with a two-round total of 2-under 142. The Tigers are currently in 13th place in the team standings at 16-over 592 for the championship.
Junior Brian Noonan is also in a position to earn a nice finish following Monday’s final round as he currently sits in a tie for 25th place at even-par 144 after posting rounds of 1-under 71 and 1-over 73. Freshman Bryant Lach is tied for 61st, while fellow freshmen Brent Blaum and Brian Leveille are tied for 71st and 78th, respectively.
Top-ranked Georgia is well on its way to defending its team title from a year ago as the Bulldogs fired team scores of 15-under 273 and 2-under 286 on Sunday to take a three-stroke lead over Florida State heading into the final round with a two-round total of 17-under 559.
Rounding out the top-five heading into Monday’s final round is 20th-ranked Georgia State in third place at 12-under 564, Tennessee-Chattanooga in fourth place at 6-under 570 and Georgia Southern in fifth place at 4-under 572.
A total of four golfers find themselves tied atop the leader board in the race to be crowned tournament champion as Chris Kirk of Georgia, Derek Oakey of Georgia State, Ian Rochester of Memphis and Jonathan Hodge of UT-Chattanooga fired impressive scores of 7-under 137.
Derek Fathauer of Louisville and Seath Lauer of Florida State are one shot back in a tie for fifth place in the individual standings at 6-under 138.
The final round of the Linger Longer Invitational is scheduled to get underway early Monday morning with tee times beginning at 7 a.m. The Tigers are paired Kennesaw State and Mercer and will tee off from the back nine beginning at 7:20. Live scoring is provided by www.golfstat.com.
LINGER LONGER INVITATIONAL ? SECOND ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 576)
1. Georgia 273-286 ? 559 -17; 2. Florida State 283-279 ? 562 -14; 3. Georgia State 287-277 ? 564 -12; 4. UT-Chattanooga 288-282 ? 570 -6; 5. Georgia Southern 284-288 ? 572 -4; 6. Alabama 285-288 ? 573 -3; t7. Louisville 287-287 ? 574 -2; t7. Augusta State 289-285 ? 574 -2; 9. Memphis 290-285 ? 575 -1; 10. Charlotte 290-287 ? 577 +1; 11. Mississippi State 296-288 ? 584 +8; 12. North Carolina 296-290 ? 586 +10; 13. LSU 297-295 ? 592 +16; 14. Kennesaw State 304-299 ? 603 +27; 15. Mercer 314-298 ? 612 +36
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 144)
t1. Jonathan Hodge, UT-Chattanooga, 69-68 ? 137 -7; t1. Chris Kirk, Georgia, 65-72 ? 137 -7; t1. Derek Oakey, Georgia State, 72-65 ? 137 -7; t1. Ian Rochester, Memphis, 70-67 ? 137 -7; t5. Derek Fathauer, Louisville, 67-71 ? 138 -6; t5. Seath Lauer, Florida State, 70-68 ? 138 -6; t7. Adam Mitchell, Georgia, 70-69 ? 139 -5; t7. Joseph Sykora, Alabama, 68-71 ? 139 -5; t9. Jonas Blixt, Florida State, 72-68 ? 140 -4; t9. Brian Harman, Georgia, 68-72 ? 140 -4
LSU SCORES
T14. Chris Wells 69-73 ? 142 -2
T25. Brian Noonan 71-73 ? 144 E
T61. Bryant Lach 75-77 ? 152 +8
T71. Brent Blaum 82-73 ? 155 +11
T78. Brian Leveille 83-76 ? 159 +15