GAINESVILLE, Fla. – LSU junior Andrew Loupe opened his 2010 spring season with a bang as he fired back-to-back rounds of 1-over par 71 during Saturday’s action at the SunTrust Gator Invitational to finish the day in a tie for fourth place on the leaderboard with a two-round total of 2-over 142.
Loupe was impressive as he finished the day just one shot out of first place as he is in the hunt for his first career individual title as an LSU Tiger.
The Baton Rouge native has enjoyed great success in the Gator Invitational throughout his career while he already has a tie for fourth place in the event on his resume during his freshman season in 2008.
Loupe is chasing the likes of Tyson Alexander of Florida, John Darby of UAB and Julian Suri of Duke as the trio matched one another stroke for stroke over the course of the first 36 holes to finish the day in a three-way tie for first place in the individual standings at 1-over 141 for the championship.
Loupe helped pace LSU into 11th place in the team standings following Saturday’s first and second rounds as the Tigers posted consecutive team scores of 17-over 297 for a 36-hole score of 34-over 594. Florida is nine shots clear of second-place Chattanooga in the race for the team crown following the first and second rounds as the fourth-ranked Gators are in the clubhouse in 2-over 562.
After opening the championship with a 2-over par 72 in the first round, sophomore Sang Yi recorded a 5-over 75 in the second round to finish the day in a tie for 26th place at 7-over 147, while junior John Peterson posted rounds of 8-over 78 and 3-over 73 to tie for 48th place at 11-over 151. Sophomore Austin Gutgsell is tied for 63rd place at 16-over 156, while sophomore Josh Jones is tied for 72nd place at 20-over 160 following 36 holes of competition.
The final round will be played Sunday with tee times beginning at 7 a.m. CT as teams will go off the front and back nines through the final tee times at 9 a.m.
The Tigers are paired with Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern in Sunday’s final round as the trio will tee off from the back nine beginning at 7:30 a.m. CT. Live scoring of the third and final round is provided by Golfstat and can be found online by logging on to www.golfstat.com.