BATON ROUGE — The 25th-ranked LSU men’s golf team has one final opportunity to prepare for the 2009 SEC Men’s Golf Championships as it travels to Jackson, Miss., for its regular season finale at the Reunion Intercollegiate beginning Monday at Reunion Golf and Country Club.
In their first ever appearance at the Reunion Intercollegiate a year ago, the Tigers earned a runner up finish in the 15-team field with their lowest 54-hole of the season at 8-under 856.
The team will be looking to win its third tournament title of the 2008-09 season as the course will play to a par 72 and a lengthy 7,416 yards for the championship. The event kicks off with the first and second rounds on Monday followed by the final round on Tuesday for 54 holes in all.
There will be no live scoring of the event as full results will be available online following each of the two days of competition at www.LSUsports.net.
This year’s tournament also features a 15-team field as the Tigers will compete against such clubs as Southeastern Conference rivals Arkansas, Auburn, Vanderbilt and host Ole Miss, as well as the programs from Jackson State, Louisiana Tech, Memphis, Mississippi State, North Florida, South Alabama, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Mississippi, UAB and UNC-Greensboro.
LSU will play alongside Arkansas and Ole Miss on the opening day as the first round will start at 8:30 a.m. CT with a shotgun start. The Tigers will tee off from holes No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3.
If the Tigers are to earn their third tournament victory of the season, they will do so with a lineup of sophomores Andrew Loupe, John Peterson and Clayton Rotz, and freshmen Josh Jones and Sang Yi. Loupe, Peterson and Rotz return to the lineup after helping the Tigers earn a sixth-place finish in their last event at the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate a week ago.
Both Peterson and Yi have been on fire during the spring season as they are tied for the team lead with three Top 10 finishes on the year. In fact, Peterson is fresh off a third-place finish at the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate where he recorded a career-low 54-hole score of 8-under 205.
Yi was absent from the LSU lineup for the first time during his rookie season as he stayed back in Baton Rouge while receiving his U.S. citizenship.
LSU is the top returning finisher from last year’s event as Tennessee-Chattanooga won’t return to defend its team championship from a year ago, winning by four strokes over the Tigers with a 54-hole score of 12-under 852. Jonathan Randolph of Ole Miss is the top returning individual from a year ago when he earned a runner-up finish with a score of 7-under 209.
After competing at the Reunion Intercollegiate, the Tigers open postseason play April 17-19 with a trip to the SEC Championships which return to Frederica Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga.