BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team returns to the state of Florida for the second time this spring as it is set to compete against a regional field at the Seminole Intercollegiate beginning Sunday at Golden Eagle Country Club in Tallahassee.
The 54-hole event kicks off with an 18-hole first round followed by Monday’s second round and Tuesday’s final round as the course will play to a par 72 and 6,965 yards for the championship.
The Tigers are coming off of a strong performance in their spring opener at the Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., three weeks ago in which they earned a sixth-place finish in a 14-team field that featured six teams ranked in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index Top 30.
They will tee it up against another strong field at the Seminole Intercollegiate as five teams are ranked among the top 30 teams in the nation, including tournament host and 11th-ranked Florida State, No. 12 Auburn, No. 20 Mississippi State, No. 24 Louisville and No. 26 North Carolina.
The championship has a regional flavor as the University of Alabama-Birmingham, College of Charleston, Maryland, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Virginia round out a quality 12-team field.
Two Tigers will be making a return trip to the Seminole Intercollegiate this week after cracking the starting lineup a year ago as sophomores Brent Blaum and Bryant Lach are poised to improve upon their performance in 2007 when they finished in a tie for 50th and 60th, respectively. Lach is making his third tournament appearance this season, while Blaum is set to make his second.
Junior Jarrod Barsamian, freshman John Peterson and freshman Clayton Rotz are set to tee it up at Golden Eagle Country Club for the first time in their LSU careers.
Rotz has proven to be the Tigers’ top performer this season as he is the team leader with a 73.6 stroke average and a pair of Top 10 finishes in five tournament appearances in his rookie season. Peterson has cracked the starting lineup a team-leading seven times this season, while Barsamian is set to make his fourth appearance of the 2007-08 campaign.
The Tigers are looking to improve upon their eighth-place finish a year ago when former LSU standout Chris Wells led the way with his best career finish by tying for third place with a 54-hole score of 3-under 213. Auburn is the defending team champion and UAB junior Zach Sucher is the top returning finisher as the tournament runner-up in 2007.
The Tigers are paired with Louisville and Ole Miss in Sunday’s opening round and will tee off on the first tee beginning at 8:45 a.m. CT. Live scoring of the event will be provided by Golfstat and can be found at the organization’s official website at www.golfstat.com.