BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s golf team will open the 2009-10 season ranked among the Top 20 programs in the country as it has been tabbed as the No. 17 team nationwide in the Golf World/Nike Golf Preseason Coaches’ Poll released Thursday afternoon.
The Tigers just missed earning a spot in the 30-team field at the 2009 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships a year ago with a sixth-place finish in the NCAA South Central Regional.
LSU returns one of the more talented rosters in all of college golf this season as junior All-American John Peterson, junior Andrew Loupe, junior Clayton Rotz, sophomore Josh Jones and sophomore Sang Yi look to build on their NCAA Regional appearance from a year ago.
Both Peterson and Loupe were ranked among the Top 100 players in the college game as sophomores last season as Peterson finished the season ranked No. 20 and Loupe wrapped up the campaign ranked No. 99 in Golfweek’s ranking of the top college golfers in the country.
Peterson enjoyed the most prolific season for an LSU Tiger in more than a decade with his performance in 2008-09 as he was named a Second-Team All-American by both PING and Golfweek, as well as a First-Team All-SEC selection after leading the Tigers to a fourth-place tie at the SEC Championships for their best finish in the event since the 2001-02 season.
The Southeastern Conference is sure to be the top conference for college golf once again in 2009-10 as it boasts more teams in the Golf World/Nike Golf Preseason Top 25 than any other conference in the country. In fact, seven SEC programs are ranked among the Top 25 programs nationwide, including No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Alabama, No. 8 Arkansas, No. 9 Florida, No. 15 South Carolina and No. 18 Tennessee.
The Pac-10 Conference in close behind with six teams ranked in the Golf World/Nike Golf Preseason Top 25, while the Atlantic Coast Conference features five teams and the Big 12 Conference adds four teams.
Golf World/Nike Golf Preseason Coaches’ Top 25
Team (Points) 2009 NCAA Finish
1. Oklahoma State (619) Elite Eight
2. Washington (601) Elite Eight
3. Georgia (511) Final Four
4. Alabama (500) 15th
5. Stanford (474) 20th
6. Arizona State (465) Elite Eight
7. Texas A&M (462) NCAA Champion
8. Arkansas (442) 2nd
9. Florida (400) 19th
10. Southern California (379) Elite Eight
11. Georgia Tech (344) T10th
12. Illinois (303) 21st
13. NC State (258) DNP
14. TCU (257) 9th
15. South Carolina (244) 16th
16. UCLA (231) T23rd
17. LSU (224) DNP
18. Tennessee (196) 12th
19. Clemson (193) DNP
20. Duke (167) 14th
21. Michigan (156) Final Four
22. Oregon (114) 22nd
23. Texas (111) 26th
24. Texas Tech (99) T23rd
25. Florida State (91) DNP