BATON ROUGE — The Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational is one of the premier events in all of college golf year in and year out, and this season is no different as 24th-ranked LSU is set to tee off against the nation’s best on Sunday at Isleworth Golf and Country Club in Windermere, Fla.
The fifth-annual event is set to return to the par 72 layout as 18 of the best teams in the nation are set to compete over three days and 54 holes of tournament action.
In a field that is a preview of the NCAA Championships, the Tigers will join host Central Florida and eight teams currently ranked in the Top 10 of the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index led by the nation’s top-ranked team in Oklahoma State, No. 3 Southern California, No. 4 Georgia, No. 5 Illinois, No. 6 Stanford, No. 8 South Carolina, No. 9 Texas and No. 10 Alabama.
Rounding out the field will be the likes of No. 12 Clemson, No. 17 Georgia Tech, No. 20 Indiana, No. 36 Texas Tech, No. 51 Kentucky, No. 57 UCLA, No. 65 Charlotte and No. 70 Arizona.
After opening the season with a win at the Gopher Invitational, LSU has been a staple in the national rankings. The Tigers are ranked as high as No. 24 in the latest Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches Top 25 and No. 25 in the latest Golfstat Top 25, while they are also No. 28 according to this week’s Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index released Thursday.
The Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational is set to begin with the opening round on Sunday, with the second round scheduled for Monday and the final round set for Tuesday.
Four of the five Tigers set to compete this week have already earned Top 10 finishes in 2008 with senior Jarrod Barsamian leading the way with a career best sixth-place tie in his season debut at the Squire Creek Invitational at Squire Creek Country Club in Choudrant, La., two weeks ago.
While playing as an individual, Barsamian enjoyed the best tournament of his collegiate career as he lit up the course with a career-low 54-hole tournament score of 6-under par 210. He actually held the lead in the individual standings with 36 holes in the books after opening the event with a 4-under 68 in the first round and a 3-under 69 in the second round in his first action of the season.
Joining Barsamian in the starting lineup this week will be sophomores John Peterson and Andrew Loupe and freshmen Josh Jones and Sang Yi as each is making his fourth appearance of the year.
Yi led the Tigers in their victory at the Gopher Invitational as he finished in a tie for fifth place in his collegiate debut, while Peterson was only one stroke back in sole possession of seventh place in LSU’s season opener. Jones has also earned a Top 10 finish this year after tying for ninth place at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate last month.
The field at Isleworth will be without a doubt the toughest test the Tigers have faced all season as Georgia returns to defend their title from a year ago. The Bulldogs blistered the course to take the team title a year ago, finishing the championship at 23-under par 841 to win by 21 strokes.
The Tigers are paired with Alabama and Central Florida in Sunday’s first round and will tee off at the first tee beginning at 7:45 a.m. CT. Live scoring of the event will be provided by Golfstat and can be found online by logging on to the organization’s official website at www.golfstat.com.