BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s golf team will make the trip to Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., this week looking to defend its team championship at the John Hayt Invitational as it joins a powerful 15-team field in the three-day, 54-hole event beginning Monday morning at Sawgrass Country Club.
The championship kicks off with the opening round on Sunday, followed by the second round on Monday and the final round on Tuesday. The course will play to a par 72 and 6,925 yards for the championship.
LSU enters the 2010 John Hayt Invitational as the defending champion after claiming an easy eight-stroke victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils a year ago. The Tigers posted a winning score of 21-over par 885 to capture their second of three tournament titles during the 2008-09 season.
Not only that, but then sophomore John Peterson won his first career individual title as an LSU Tiger with a two-stroke victory over teammate and fellow sophomore Andrew Loupe in the final team standings. Peterson fired rounds of 1-under 71, 1-over 73 and 2-under 70 en route to a 54-hole score of 2-under 214, while Loupe finished two shots back in a tie for second place at even-par 216.
Both Peterson and Loupe make their return to Sawgrass Country Club as juniors as they hope to lead LSU back to the top of the team standings. They will be joined in LSU’s five-man starting lineup by senior Brent Blaum, sophomore Austin Gutgsell and sophomore Sang Yi.
The Tigers are just two weeks removed from a fifth-place tie in the 14-team field at the Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., in their first tournament of the 2010 spring season.
In fact, it was Loupe who led the Tigers at the Gator Invitational as he earned his second career runner-up finish individually and his first since the John Hayt Invitational a year ago. Loupe set the pace by firing an impressive 1-over par score of 211 for three rounds to finish one shot out of the lead.
The Tigers must defend their team title against a strong 15-team field that features four teams currently in the Golfstat Top 25 national ranking, including No. 4 Florida, No. 22 TCU, No. 23 Alabama and No. 25 Tennessee. Rounding out this year’s field are host North Florida, Central Florida, Coastal Carolina, Duke, Furman, Georgia Southern, Mercer, NC State, Tulsa and UAB.
LSU will play alongside Coastal Carolina and Duke in Sunday’s opening round and will tee off beginning at 7:30 a.m. CT on the first hole. Tee times for the second and third rounds have yet to be determined.
Live scoring of the 2010 John Hayt Invitational will be provided by Golfstat at www.golfstat.com. Check back with LSUsports.net for complete daily coverage of the championship.