BATON ROUGE – In the wake of capturing its third team championship of the 2010-11 season with a win Tuesday at the seventh-annual Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate, the LSU men’s golf team returned to the Top 10 of the national rankings Wednesday night with the release of the Golfstat Top 25.
The Tigers jumped three spots to No. 9 in this week’s Golfstat power ranking as they prepare to play host to the LSU National Invitational on Saturday and Sunday at the University Club.
LSU fired a 3-under par 849 in 54 holes at Bulls Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, S.C., earlier this week for a third team victory of the season. The Tigers defeated a deep field that featured seven other programs ranked in this week’s Golfstat Top 25 power ranking, including No. 6 Augusta State, No. 7 Auburn, No. 8 Florida, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 18 Duke, No. 21 Virginia and No. 25 NC State.
The Tigers are set to welcome 11 programs to Baton Rouge to compete in their first event at the new-look University Club, led by No. 12-ranked Iowa from the Big 10 Conference.
The Hawkeyes have been outstanding throughout the 2010-11 season while winning four tournaments for the year. That includes four-straight victories during the fall campaign, including team titles at the Golfweek Conference Challenge (Sept. 21), Fighting Irish Golf Classic (Sept. 28), Rod Myers Invitational (Oct. 11) and Baylor Intercollegiate (Nov. 2).
The field features three other programs that are currently ranked among the Top 50 teams nationwide with No. 37 Notre Dame, No. 45 Michigan and No. 46 Chattanooga coming to Baton Rouge. Chattanooga was runner-up in the prestigious Linger Longer Invitational held earlier this week in Greensboro, Ga.
Rounding out the field for this weekend’s LSU National Invitational are Boston College, Centenary, Iowa State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Minnesota, Penn State and Virginia Commonwealth.
Golfstat Top 25 (as of March 30)
1. Oklahoma State
2. UCLA
3. Alabama
4. San Diego State
5. Georgia Tech
6. Augusta State
7. Auburn
8. Florida
9. LSU
10. Texas A&M
11. Illinois
12. Iowa
13. Texas
14. Georgia
15. Arkansas
16. Stanford
17. California
18. Duke
19. Texas Tech
20. San Diego
21. Virginia
22. Washington
23. Arizona State
24. Southern California
25. NC State