BATON ROUGE – After winning the team title in its home event at the David Toms Intercollegiate on Oct. 19 and finishing runner-up in the prestigious Isleworth Collegiate Invitational on Tuesday, the LSU men’s golf team has earned a No. 7 national ranking in the latest Golfstat Top 25 released Wednesday.
The Tigers, who opened the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational with a No. 12 national ranking by Golfstat, have climbed five spots to No. 7 in this week’s Golfstat power rankings after wrapping up the fall season Tuesday with a second-place finish in one of the premier regular season events in all of college golf.
LSU finished only two strokes behind the nation’s new No. 4-ranked team in Alabama for the team crown at Isleworth and defeated the likes of No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 9 Texas, No. 13 Stanford, No. 14 Georgia, No. 19 Texas Tech and No. 24 Ohio State.
The SEC is proving to be the deepest conference in the country again this season with more teams ranked in the Top 10 and Top 25 of the Golfstat power ranking than any conference in college golf.
Four programs are ranked in the Top 10 this week as the No. 7-ranked Tigers are joined by No. 1 Florida, No. 4 Alabama and No. 10 Arkansas, while no other conference in the country boasts more than two Top 10 teams. Other SEC programs ranked in the Golfstat Top 25 include No. 11 Auburn and No. 14 Georgia.
In addition to their lofty team ranking, four Tigers have finished the fall season ranked among the nation’s Top 100 individual performers, according to the Golfstat rankings. Senior All-American Andrew Loupe leads the way at No. 50 in the country following his top-five finish at Isleworth, while he is also joined by senior Ken Looper at No. 65, senior John Peterson at No. 90 and junior Sang Yi at No. 97.
LSU is one of only five NCAA program with four players ranked in the Golfstat Top 100 player rankings as the Tigers join No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 3 UCLA and No. 5 Augusta State. No club in the country has more than four players ranked among the nation’s Top 100 individuals.
Golfstat Top 25 (Oct. 27, 2010)
1. Florida
2. Oklahoma State
3. UCLA
4. Alabama
5. Augusta State
6. Georgia Tech
7. LSU
8. Illinois
9. Texas
10. Arkansas
11. Auburn
12. Texas A&M
13. Stanford
14. Georgia
15. San Diego State
16. Virginia
17. Iowa
18. Duke
19. Texas Tech
20. California
21. Wake Forest
22. NC State
23. San Diego
24. Ohio State
25. Southern California