BATON ROUGE — After dominating the field with an eight-stroke victory at the John Hayt Invitational in its last tournament appearance, the 18th-ranked LSU men’s golf team will continue its season this weekend as it competes in the Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational in Statesboro, Ga.
The first round of the three-day, 54-hole event is set to begin on Friday at Forest Heights Country Club, while the second round will be played Saturday followed by the final round on Sunday. The course will play to a par 72 and 6,962 yards for the championship.
The Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational attracts a quality field each year, and this year’s tournament is no exception as the Tigers are one of six nationally-ranked teams competing this weekend.
LSU will tee off in the first round ranked No. 18 in the country in the latest Golfstat Top 25 with No. 9 Florida, No. 14 NC State, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 16 South Carolina and No. 21 Ole Miss in the 18-team field. Tournament host Georgia Southern, Auburn Augusta State, Georgia State, Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Florida, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and Virginia will round out the field.
LSU is set to tee off from the back nine alongside Georgia Southern and South Carolina in Friday’s opening round as tee times begin at 8:36 a.m. CT. Live scoring for the Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational will be provided by Golfstat and can be found online at www.golfstat.com.
“The Schenkel has been one of the premier events in college golf for years,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “And as always, the level of competition will be strong with many of the teams here enjoying successful play this year. We look forward to a good, competitive weekend.”
The Tigers are fresh off their most impressive performance of the season in which they captured a team title for the second time this year with an eight-stroke victory at the John Hayt Invitational.
While competing against a 15-team field as strong as any they’ve seen this season, the Tigers fired a team total of 21-over 885 to win by eight strokes over then 10th-ranked Arizona State back on Feb. 24. The field also featured five other nationally-ranked squads from Alabama, Tennessee, Duke, TCU and Chattanooga that were among the nation’s top 25 teams during the event.
Not only did LSU capture the team championship at the John Hayt Invitational, but sophomore John Peterson became the first Tiger in nearly four years to win medalist honors after firing a 54-hole score of 2-under par 214 to win the individual title by two shots on the leaderboard.
Teammate and fellow sophomore Andrew Loupe also earned his best career finish while tying for second place in the individual standings with a cumulative score of even-par 216.
The duo will lead the Tigers once again as each is scheduled to make his seventh tournament start this weekend at the Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational. They will be joined by a trio of freshmen as Austin Gutgsell, Josh Jones and Sang Yi have cracked the five-man lineup. Jones and Yi will also make their seventh appearance of the season, while Gutgsell is set to make his second.
Although Alabama won the team title a year ago, the Florida Gators are the top returning finisher in the team standings from 2008 when they were runners-up to the Crimson Tide. LSU finished in seventh place in the 18-team field as Loupe led the way with a 13th-place finish individually.
“It’s great for us to get back into competition to see how our guys are progressing,” Winstead said. “We’ve been improving at home since our last event, but it’s time to get back into competition to see where we stand. Our lineup will likely be a little different over the next couple of tournaments as we prepare for the postseason.
“We’ve got a few guys who have been playing very well, and we need to see how they perform in competition as we get a little farther along in our spring season.”