BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team is set to make its annual trip to Statesboro, Ga., this weekend as the Tigers will compete against arguably the strongest field they have seen this year at the 29th-annual Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational at Forest Heights Country Club.
The 54-hole event kicks off with the opening round on Friday followed by the second round on Saturday and what is sure to be an exciting final round on Sunday as the course will play to a par 72 and 6,962 yards for the championship.
The Tigers are paired with Southeastern Conference rival Kentucky and Notre Dame in the first round and will tee off from the back nine beginning at 8:45 a.m. CDT.
The 18-team field at this year’s championship features a total of eight teams currently ranked among the nation’s top 30 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index and nine teams that made an appearance in the 2007 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships this past June.
Joining the LSU, Kentucky and Notre Dame are host Georgia Southern, No. 2 Alabama, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 11 Auburn, No. 12 Florida, No. 15 Michigan State, No. 20 South Carolina, No. 23 North Carolina and No. 29 UAB. Rounding out the field are Augusta State, Boston College, Minnesota, New Mexico, NC State and North Florida.
“This is one of the best events in all of college golf with a tremendous amount of history and tradition,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “This is always one of the deepest fields we see all year long, and by starting three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior, we’ll need our guys to show some patience and maturity this weekend.”
Cracking the starting lineup this weekend are junior Jarrod Barsamian, sophomore Bryant Lach and freshmen Andrew Loupe, John Peterson and Clayton Rotz.
Barsamian is the only Tiger to compete in this event a year ago as he is making his sixth tournament appearance of the season. Peterson is set to make his eighth start of the season, while Loupe and Rotz are making their seventh and Lach is making his fourth.
The Tigers are looking to improve upon their 13th-place finish in last year’s tournament when they posted a 54-hole score of 33-over 897. The Georgia Bulldogs won the team title with a score of 10-under 854, while Georgia’s Chris Kirk won medalist honors after firing a 6-under 210.
Alabama is the top returning finisher as the Crimson Tide was last year’s runner-up to Georgia with a 54-hole score of 4-under 860, and Crimson Tide senior Michael Thompson is the top returning individual after taking third place with a 3-under 213 in three rounds.
Live scoring for the Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational will be provided by Golfstat and can be found online at www.golfstat.com. The Tigers follow their trip to Statesboro, Ga., this weekend with a trip to Awendaw, S.C., on March 23 to compete in the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate at Bulls Bay Golf Club.