BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s golf team has caught fire at the beginning of the spring season and will look to continue its momentum this weekend as it makes the trip to Statesboro, Ga., to compete in the 31st-annual Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational beginning Friday at Forest Heights Country Club.
The Tigers are coming off an impressive victory at the 25th-annual Louisiana Classics on March 8-9 and a runner-up finish at the John Hayt Invitational on Feb. 28-March 1.
LSU captured its second team championship of the season at the Louisiana Classics after posting an even-par 864 in three rounds at Oakbourne Country Club. The Tigers also defended their home turf by winning the David Toms Intercollegiate at the Country Club of Louisiana back in October.
With their performance, the Tigers find themselves knocking on the door of the nation’s Top 25 teams as they are ranked No. 27 nationally in both the Golfstat Top 25 and Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index.
“We have taken some steps in the right direction at the start of the spring season, but it is important for us to continue to move forward and build consistency as we prepare for the postseason,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “We look forward to competing in this event each year. We’ll face another strong field this year, and I’m sure it’ll be a tight finish once again on Sunday.”
LSU hopes to continue its hot streak this weekend as it competes against 14 other programs for the title at the Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational being held at Forest Heights Country Club. The championship is set for 54 holes with the first round being played on Friday, followed by the second round Saturday and the final round on Sunday. The course will play to a par 72 and 6,962 yards for the weekend.
The Tigers will join six other programs this weekend that are currently ranked among the Top 30 teams in the country in the latest Golfweek rankings, including No. 8 Florida, No. 13 South Carolina, No. 23 North Florida, No. 24 Alabama, No. 26 Virginia and No. 28 Tennessee.
Rounding out the 15-team field are Auburn, Georgia Southern, Kentucky, Louisville, North Carolina, NC State, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt as another tight finish is expected that this year’s event.
The 13th-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks are the defending champions after earning a two-shot victory over NC State and Tennessee in last year’s event. The Gamecocks recorded a 1-over 865 for three rounds to take the team title in the 30th edition of one of the South’s premier spring tournaments.
Defending NCAA champion and Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational medalist Matt Hill of NC State will return to defend the individual crown he won a year ago while firing a 7-under 209 in three rounds.
Junior Andrew Loupe is sure to lead the Tigers again this weekend after winning his first career event title at the Louisiana Classics on March 9 while firing a career-low 54-hole total of 8-under par 208, including back-to-back scores of 5-under 67 in the second and third rounds. With his performance, Loupe picked up his first career SEC Men’s Golfer of the Week honor on Wednesday.
Loupe is making a strong case for All-SEC and All-America honors this season as he is ranked as the No. 34 player in the country in the latest Golfweek individual player rankings.
The Baton Rouge native is the team leader with an impressive 71.7 scoring average while earning the start in all seven tournaments this season. He has also finished in the top five of the leader board in three of the last four events in which he has competed, including his win at the Louisiana Classics.
Sophomore Sang Yi is also coming off a Top 10 finish at the Louisiana Classics where he tied for 10th for his first of the season. Yi has shown good form in recent weeks as he also earned a 12th-place finish at the John Hayt Invitational while lowering his scoring average to 73.9 strokes pre round.
Like Loupe and Yi, junior All-American and Ben Hogan Award candidate John Peterson is scheduled for his eighth start of the year as he enters the event with a 72.3 scoring average to rank second on the team.
Junior Clayton Rotz and sophomore Austin Gutgsell have also cracked LSU’s five-man starting lineup for the weekend, while sophomore Josh Jones is slated to compete as an individual.
The Tigers are paired with Georgia Southern and South Carolina in Friday’s opening round and will tee off from the first tee beginning at 8 a.m. CT. Live scoring of the Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational is provided by Golfstat and can be found online by logging on to www.golfstat.com. Complete coverage of the Tigers competing at the Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational will also be posted at www.LSUsports.net.