SOUTH BEND, Ind. – On the strength of a 3-under par 67 by junior All-American John Peterson, the No. 5-seeded LSU men’s golf team fired a team score of even-par 280 in the first round of the NCAA Central Regional Championships to finish the day in sole possession of third place at The Warren Golf Course.
The Tigers are just three shots out of the lead in the race for this year’s NCAA Central Regional crown as No. 1-seeded and No. 2-ranked Stanford grabbed the top spot with a 3-under 277 in the opening round and No. 2-seeded and No. 6-ranked Florida finished the day in second place with a 1-under 279.
No. 3 seed Florida State is six shots back in fourth place at 3-over par 283, while No. 9 seed Northwestern and No. 11 seed Virginia Tech follow in a tie for fifth place overall at 4-over 284.
Teams finishing in the top five of the final standings at the 2010 NCAA Central Regional Championships will earn the right to compete in the field at the 2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships slated for June 1-6 at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn.
After holing out with a 3-under par 67 in Thursday’s first round, Peterson finished the day just one stroke behind Michigan’s Andrew Sitompul in a four-way tie for second place on the individual leaderboard. He tied for third place at the NCAA South Central Regional as a sophomore a year ago.
Peterson carded a team-high five birdies and two bogeys en route to his opening round 67. While opening up on the back nine, Peterson traded a birdie on No. 12 with a bogey on No. 13 to remain at even. He then dropped to 2-under par on the round with birdies at the par-four 15th and par-five 17th holes before making the turn at1-under par with a bogey at the par-four 18th hole.
Peterson was flawless on his second nine while carding two birdies on the par-four third and par-five fifth holes to finish up the afternoon in a tie for second place on the leaderboard with a 3-under 67.
LSU was also led Thursday by the performance of junior First-Team All-SEC selection and All-American candidate Andrew Loupe and sophomore standout Sang Yi. The duo carded matching rounds of even-par 70 to finish just one stroke outside the Top 10 of the individual leaderboard. Yi was steady throughout the day while evening out with one birdie and one bogey, while Loupe had two of each to finish at level par.
Sophomore Austin Gutgsell contributed a 3-over 73 to LSU’s final total to finish the round in a tie for 36th place, while junior Clayton Rotz added a 4-over 74 to finish in a tie for 47th place.
The Tigers will play alongside first-round leader Stanford and first-round runner-up Florida in the second round on Friday as they are scheduled to tee off from the front nine beginning at 8:10 a.m. CDT. Live scoring of the second round of the NCAA Central Regional can be found online at www.golfstat.com.
NCAA CENTRAL REGIONAL – FIRST ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 280)
1. Stanford 277 -3; 2. Florida 279 -1; 3. LSU 280 E; 4. Florida State 283 +3; T5. Northwestern 284 +4; T5. Virginia Tech 284 +4; T7. Michigan 285 +5; T7. Indiana 285 +5; 9. Iowa 288 +8; 10. NC State 289 +9; 11. Duke 292 +12; T12. Detroit Mercy 297 +17; T12. Murray State 297 +17; 14. St. Francis 319 +39.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 70)
1. Alexander Sitompul, Michigan, 66 -4; T2. John Peterson, LSU, 67 -3; T2. Wesley Graham, Florida State, 67 -3; T2. David Chung, Stanford, 67 -3; T2. Josh Dupont, Northwestern, 67 -3; T6. Bank Vongvanij, Florida, 68 -2; T6. Chase Wright, Indiana, 68 -2; T8. Phillip Choi, Florida, 69 -1; T8. Sihwan Kim, Stanford, 69 -1; T8. Drew Kittleson, Florida State, 69 -1; T8. Matt Hill, NC State, 69 -1; T8. David Erdy, Indiana, 69 -1.
LSU SCORES
T2. John Peterson 67 -3
T13. Andrew Loupe 70 E
T13. Sang Yi 70 E
T36. Austin Gutgsell 73 +3
T47. Clayton Rotz 74 +4