BATON ROUGE — Despite a complete wash out of Friday’s practice round at the Mark Bostick Golf Course on the campus of the University of Florida, clear skies and cool temperatures are in the forecast on Saturday and Sunday as the LSU men’s golf team resumes its 2009-10 season with its annual appearance in the 54-hole SunTrust Gator Invitational.
The first and second rounds will be contested Saturday beginning with a shotgun start at 7 a.m. CT, while the final round is scheduled for Sunday with tee times beginning at 7 a.m. The course will play to a par 70 and 6,701 yards for the two-day, 54-hole championship.
Live scoring of the 2010 SunTrust Gator Invitational is provided by Golfstat and can be found by logging on to the organization’s website at www.golfstat.com.
This year’s event welcomes 14 teams from across the Southeast as the Tigers will battle the likes of No. 4 Florida, No. 16 Florida State, Central Florida, Chattanooga, Coastal Carolina, Duke, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Lamar, North Florida, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and UAB.
“Our guys are excited to get back on the course and compete following such a long break,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “We enjoy coming back to this event each year. The Gator Invitational is always a great place to start the spring season because we have the chance to compete against a solid field. We’re looking forward to a very competitive event again this year.
“We’re all faced with a difficult challenge this weekend since today’s practice round was rained out. That will be a key as the entire field will have to adapt quickly to the conditions of the course tomorrow.”
The Tigers are set to compete for the first time since wrapping up the fall season Oct. 26-27 with a victory at the David Toms Intercollegiate at the Country Club of Louisiana in Baton Rouge.
Led by junior All-American John Peterson‘s runner-up finish in the individual standings with a three-day score of 8-under par 205, the Tigers nipped North Florida by a single shot in the team standings with a 8-under par team score of 844 for 54 holes.
Peterson is sure to lead the way once again for the Tigers as he tops a five-man lineup that includes fellow junior Andrew Loupe and sophomores Austin Gutgsell, Josh Jones and Sang Yi. Loupe, Jones and Yi also make their return to the lineup after helping the Tigers win the crown at the David Toms Intercollegiate at the Country Club of Louisiana back in October in their fall season finale.
LSU earned a sixth-place finish in the 14-team field a year ago as the Tigers posted a 54-hole score of 10-over par 850. Yi was the lone Tiger to finish in the Top 10 with a tie for ninth place at 1-under 209.
Peterson proved to be the Tigers’ top performer in the fall as he led the team with two top-five finishes for an impressive scoring average of 70.8 strokes per round in four tournament appearances. Loupe posted an impressive scoring average of his own of 71.8 en route to a pair of Top 10 finishes in four starts.
The Tigers are paired with Georgia Southern and North Florida in the opening round and will tee off from holes No. 4 through No. 8 with a shotgun start scheduled for 7 a.m.