WINDERMERE, Fla. – The 12th-ranked LSU men’s golf team wrapped up the 2010 fall season on Tuesday afternoon with an impressive second-place finish in an elite 15-team field competing at the 2010 Isleworth Collegiate Invitational held this week at Isleworth Golf & Country Club.
With seniors Ken Looper and John Peterson leading the way with matching scores of 1-over par 73 in the final round, the Tigers posted an 11-over par 299 on Tuesday en route to a runner-up finish with a 54-hole score of 22-over par in one of the premier regular season tournaments in all of college golf.
The Tigers, who climbed to within one shot of the lead entering the final three holes of the round, finished only two shots back of No. 5-ranked Alabama for this year’s team championship.
After opening the final round with a four-shot lead over LSU and Stanford, the Crimson Tide posted a 13-over 301 in the final round to take the title with a 54-hole score of 20-over 884. The No. 1-ranked Florida Gators and No. 18-ranked Stanford Cardinal finished 10 shots back in a third-place tie at 30-over par 894, while No. 2-ranked Oklahoma State and TCU finished in a tie for fifth place at 31-over 895.
LSU’s performance at the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational puts the finishing touches on a tremendous fall season in which it also captured team titles at the Gopher Invitational and David Toms Intercollegiate.
“I’m certainly pleased with the effort our guys showed this week. That is the kind of effort we’ve come to expect from our program,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “We’re disappointed in a sense that we came so close to winning it, but just didn’t get it done. We have a great squad that didn’t give this field its best shot this week. We need to execute a little bit better than we did this week.
“We have a great group of guys that fights hard to the very end. One thing you cannot question is whether someone out there with an LSU bag will give it all he’s got for the success of the team. We’ll need a bit of time off as we head into the winter so we can prepare ourselves for a strong spring.”
While Peterson and Looper set the pace for the Tigers with matching 73s during Tuesday’s action, fellow senior Andrew Loupe was the team’s top performer throughout the event as he earned his first top-five of the season by tying for first place with a three-day total of 2-over 218 and a 3-over 75 in the final round.
After missing four months of action following offseason shoulder surgery including LSU’s season opener at the Gopher Invitational, Loupe is rounding into the All-America form he showed as a junior a year ago.
Loupe finished six shots back of individual champion Bank Vongvanij of Florida as the Gator star fired 4-under 68 in Tuesday’s final round to defeat Tennessee’s Robin Wingardh by two shots for the crown with a winning 54-hole score of 4-under 212. Loupe tied Alabama freshman Cory Whitsett for fifth place.
“You can’t say enough about what Andrew Loupe accomplished this week,” Winstead said. “For that guy to come off not hitting a ball for four months over the summer and into the early part of the season, and to be able to come here to Isleworth and play this well against this kind of a field is quite an accomplishment and a testament to how competitive he is. And he feels like he can do so much more than that.”
Junior Sang Yi nearly earned a top-10 finish of his own by tying for 11th place on the final leader board as he carded a 6-over 78 in the final round for a 54-hole tournament score of 5-over 221.
Looper followed in a tie for 26th place overall with a cumulative total of 10-over 226, while Peterson fired a 12-over 228 in three rounds of action this week at the par-72 course at Isleworth Golf & Country Club. Junior Austin Gutgsell, the reigning Golfweek National Player of the Week following his medalist victory at the David Toms Intercollegiate a week ago, finished in a tie for 37th place at 13-over 229.
The Tigers will not return to action until Feb. 12-13 when they make their annual trip to Gainesville, Fla., to compete in the 2011 SunTrust Gator Invitational at the Mark Bostick Golf Course.
ISLEWORTH COLLEGIATE INVITATIONAL – FINAL ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 864)
1. Alabama 291-292-301 – 884 +20; 2. LSU 293-294-299 – 886 +22; T3. Florida 305-290-299 – 894 +30; T3. Stanford 290-297-307 – 894 +30; T5. TCU 290-299-306 – 895 +31; T5. Oklahoma State 298-297-300 – 895 +31; 7. Texas Tech 297-300-299 – 896 +32; 8. Ohio State 299-307-294 – 900 +36; 9. Texas 309-297-298 – 904 +40; 10. Central Florida 307-294-306 – 907 +43; T11. Tennessee 309-294-305 – 908 +44; T11. Georgia 304-301-303 – 908 +44; 13. SMU 301-307-307 – 915 +51; 14. Vanderbilt 298-302-323 – 923 +59; 15. Arizona 302-315-315 – 932 +68.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 216)
1. Bank Vongvanij, Florida, 74-70-68 – 212 -4; 2. Robin Wingardh, Tennessee, 71-68-75 – 214 -2; 3. Morgan Hoffman, Oklahoma State, 71-71-74 – 216 E; 4. Andrew Yun, Stanford, 71-70-76 – 217 +1; T5. Andrew Loupe, LSU, 70-73-75 – 218 +2; T5. Cory Whitsett, Alabama, 71-74-73 – 218 +2; 7. Kevin Tway, Oklahoma State, 73-71-75 – 219 +3; T8. Phillip Choi, Florida, 78-72-70 – 220 +4; T8. Bo Hoag, Ohio State, 71-76-73 – 220 +4; T8. Tarquin Macmanus, Arizona, 69-76-75 – 220 +4.
LSU SCORES
T5. Andrew Loupe, 70-73-75 – 218 +2
T11. Sang Yi, 72-71-78 – 221 +5
T26. Ken Looper, 76-77-73 – 226 +10
T33. John Peterson, 79-76-73 – 228 +12
T37. Austin Gutgsell, 75-74-80 – 229 +13