LAFAYETTE, La. – After earning an impressive runner-up finish in the 15-team field at the John Hayt Invitational just five days ago, the LSU men’s golf team will look to continue its momentum this week as it competes in the 25th-annual Louisiana Classics beginning Monday at Oakbourne Country Club.
The two-day, 54-hole tournament features two rounds on Monday beginning with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. CT followed by the final round on Tuesday with tee times beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Oakbourne Country Club has played host to the event in each of the last 24 seasons and will feature a par-72, 7,141-yard layout this week as 15 programs will compete for this year’s team championship.
The championship features four teams currently ranked in the Top 50 of the Golfstat power ranking as the 28th-ranked Tigers will compete against the likes of No. 13 Illinois, No. 26 SMU and No. 48 Southeastern Louisiana for the team title. Rounding out the 15-team field at the Louisiana Classics are tournament host University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Arkansas-Little Rock, Colorado, Houston, Kansas, Memphis, New Orleans, Southern Miss, Texas State, Tulsa and UAB.
LSU will play alongside Illinois and Louisiana-Lafayette on the first day of competition as the first round is scheduled to get underway with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. The Tigers will tee off from holes No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 on Monday morning. Tuesday’s pairings have yet to be determined.
While there will be no live scoring of the Louisiana Classics, full coverage of the this year’s event will be available at LSUsports.net following each day of the competition.
The Tigers were impressive in the final round of the John Hayt Invitational on Tuesday as they recorded a tournament-low 3-over par 291 en route to a runner-up finish in the final team standings with a 54-hole score of 24-over 888. LSU also finished in a tie for fifth place overall in the 14-team field at the SunTrust Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., after opening the spring season back on Feb. 13-14.
The Tigers will compete with the same five-man starting lineup at the Louisiana Classics that picked up a second-place finish at the John Hayt Invitational just five days ago as senior Brent Blaum, junior Andrew Loupe, junior John Peterson, sophomore Austin Gutgsell and sophomore Sang Yi will compete this week.
In addition, senior Brian Leveille and junior Clayton Rotz will compete as individuals as they are slated to tee it up in their first tournament of the spring season.
Gutgsell enjoyed the best tournament start of his career at the John Hayt Invitational as he earned a top-10 finish for the first time by tying for fifth place in the individual standings with a career-low 1-over 217 for three rounds, including a 2-under par round of 70 in the final round.
For Gutgsell, his appearance in the Louisiana Classics will be the sixth tournament start of the season and the eighth during his two-year LSU career. Loupe, Peterson and Yi are each making their seventh tournament appearance of the campaign as they are the only three Tigers to compete in each of the team’s seven events this season. Blaum is making his fifth appearance of the season.