BATON ROUGE – The No. 8-ranked LSU men’s golf team will be back in action Monday and Tuesday as it travels to Oakbourne Country Club in nearby Lafayette, La., to defend its team championship during the 26th-annual Louisiana Classics hosted by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
The Tigers are sure to be led by senior All-American Andrew Loupe, who will also compete this week to defend the individual championship he won at Oakbourne Country Club a season ago.
The two-day, 54-hole championship kicks off Monday with a shotgun start scheduled for 8 a.m. CST. The teams will play two rounds on Monday followed by the final round on Tuesday. Oakbourne Country Club will play to a par-72 layout and 6,898 yards for the 26th-annual Louisiana Classics.
The Tigers must defend their team crown against a 15-team field that includes tournament host Louisiana-Lafayette, No. 6-ranked Illinois, Arkansas-Little Rock, Houston, Kent State, Kansas, Memphis, SMU, South Alabama, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Miss, Texas State, Tulsa and UAB.
LSU actually earned a two-stroke victory over Illinois for the team title a year ago while firing a score of even-par 864 for three rounds, including an impressive 11-under par 277 in the second round, for its third team championship of the 2009-10 season. The Tigers would also capture their third team title this season with a victory after also winning the Gopher Invitational and David Toms Intercollegiate in the fall.
After firing back-to-back scores of 5-under 67 in the second and third rounds, Loupe claimed his first ever individual crown in a collegiate event, defeating former NCAA champion Scott Langley of Illinois by one stroke with a career-low 54-hole score of 8-under 208 at the par-72 layout.
Senior All-American John Peterson and junior standout Sang Yi also return to LSU’s lineup from the five man team that brought the team title back to Baton Rouge a year ago. Not only that, but LSU is sure to be led by senior All-America hopeful Ken Looper, who fired a 5-under 211 to earn a third-place finish a year ago while competing during his junior season at the University of New Orleans.
Rounding out LSU’s five-man starting lineup is freshman Andrew Presley, while senior Clayton Rotz and junior Austin Gutgsell will compete as individuals during the championship.
The Tigers are paired with Illinois and Louisiana-Lafayette during Monday’s action as they will tee off of the first three holes beginning with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. Final round tee times will be determined after Monday action. Golfstat will provide live scoring throughout the tournament at www.golfstat.com.