PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The LSU men’s golf team put up a strong defense of its team championship at the John Hayt Invitational while firing a tournament-low 3-over 291 in the final round, but the Tigers fell just short of their bid for a second-straight team crown with a second-place finish in the final team standings on a blustery Tuesday afternoon at Sawgrass Country Club.
After taking the team championship at the John Hayt Invitational with an eight-stroke victory in 2009, the Tigers finished 12 strokes behind host North Florida in the race for this year’s title with a 54-hole score of 24-over 888. The Ospreys defended their home turf with a winning score of 12-over 876.
The Duke Blue Devils earned a third-place finish in the team standings with a score of 25-over 889, while the Alabama Crimson Tide took fourth with a 31-over 895.
LSU was certainly the most impressive club on Tuesday in spite of the windy conditions as its 3-over 291 was three strokes better than the 6-over par round of 294 posted by North Florida.
The Tigers opened the final round in seventh place following a 16-over 304 in the first round and a 5-over 293 in the second round, but vaulted into second place in the final standings following Tuesday’s action.
“You can see by the scores that it was a tough day out there. Our guys fought through it and showed great mental toughness throughout today’s round,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “Our execution could have been better, but I don’t think our approach to the game today could have been any better. That is always a key on days like today when the wind blows hard and scores go up.
“We still need to clean up some things, especially with our short game. We weren’t very sharp around the greens, and our putting has to get better going forward. But we’ll continue to work on that in practice and get ready for a tough spring. This was definitely a positive step forward for our team.”
Sophomore Austin Gutgsell led the Tigers once again with his first career Top 10 finish in a LSU uniform as he tied for fifth place on the leaderboard with an impressive 1-over par score of 217. Gutgsell fired a 2-under 70 in the final round for his lowest round in relation to par this season, eclipsing the 1-under par 69 carded in the final round at the Gator Invitational on Feb. 14.
Gutgsell was flawless in a bogey-free final round that included a pair of birdies on the par-three sixth and par-five 11th holes en route to the best finish of his collegiate career.
Sophomore Sang Yi also enjoyed his best performance of the season with a 12th-place finish. After rounds of 3-over 75 on Sunday and 2-under 70 on Monday, Yi carded another 3-over 75 on Tuesday to finish the week with a 54-hole score of 4-over 220. His previous best was a tie for 36th at the Gator Invitational.
“It was obviously a great week for Austin and Sang. It’s fair to say that this is probably the best they have played since they’ve been here at LSU,” Winstead said. “To play the way they did on a challenging course like this with these conditions shows just how much they’ve improved mentally and their approach to the game. Their performance this week was tremendous for our team.”
LSU junior Andrew Loupe also earned a Top 20 finish on the strength of a 2-over 74 in the final round. It was good enough to earn an 18th-place tie for Loupe with a three-round total of 8-over 224.
Fellow junior John Peterson added an even-par 72 toward LSU’s final team total as he finished in a tie for 38th place overall with a score of 12-over 228. Senior Brent Blaum contributed a 4-over par 76 in the final round as he finished in a tie for 61st place with a 54-hole score of 17-over 233.
North Florida’s Joe Byun led wire-to-wire as he captured medalist honors with a cumulative 4-under 212. Sean Dale of North Florida, Dan Obremski of Coastal Carolina and Austin Reeves of Furman wrapped up the championship four shots back in a three-way tie for second place at even-par 216.
The Tigers return to action next week as they make the short trip to Lafayette, La., to compete in the 2010 Louisiana Classics hosted by Louisiana-Lafayette at Oakbourne Country Club. The event is scheduled for 54 holes and will be contested March 8-9 at the par-72 layout.
JOHN HAYT INVITATIONAL – FINAL ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 864)
1. North Florida 288-294-294 – 876 +12; 2. LSU 304-293-291 – 888 +24; 3. Duke 294-291-304 – 889 +25; 4. Alabama 307-291-297 – 895 +31; T5. Tennessee 304-297-297 – 898 +34; T5. Tulsa 303-293-302 – 898 +34; 7. Florida 310-293-296 – 899 +35; 8. Furman 296-297-307 – 900 +36; 9. TCU 298-302-301 – 901 +37; 10. Georgia Southern 301-295-306 – 902 +38; 11. Central Florida 304-292-309 – 905 +41; 12. Coastal Carolina 307-296-304 – 907 +43; 13. UAB 313-298-299 – 910 +46; 14. NC State 312-298-304 – 914 +50; 15. Mercer 312-312-307 – 931 +67.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS
1. Joe Byun, North Florida, 69-69-74 – 212 -4; T2. Sean Dale, North Florida, 72-70-74 – 216 E; T2. Dan Obremski, Coastal Carolina, 75-67-74 – 216 E; T2. Austin Reeves, Furman, 71-70-75 – 216 E; T5. Austin Gutgsell, LSU, 72-75-70 – 217 +1; T5. Rob Laird, Tulsa, 75-69-73 – 217 +1; T5. Tyler McCumber, Florida, 75-71-71 – 217 +1; T5. Tim McKenney, Florida, 78-70-69 – 217 +1; T10. Bud Cauley, Alabama, 78-69-72 – 219 +3; T10. Kevin Phelan, North Florida, 71-77-71 – 219 +3.
LSU SCORES
T5. Austin Gutgsell, 72-75-70 – 217 +1
12. Sang Yi, 75-70-75 – 220 +4
T18. Andrew Loupe, 77-73-74 – 224 +8
T38. John Peterson, 81-75-72 – 228 +12
T61. Brent Blaum, 80-77-76 – 233 +17