BATON ROUGE – Following a historic season in which three-time All-American John Peterson was crowned national champion in leading LSU to its second-straight NCAA Championships appearance in 2010-11, a new generation of Tigers opens the 2011-12 campaign this weekend as the No. 17-ranked LSU men’s golf team competes at the 23rd-annual Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic.
The Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic has earned a reputation as one of the top events of the fall season as The Farm Golf Club in Rocky Face, Ga., will play host to a deep 12-team field that features six teams that are ranked in the Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 and six teams competing with the 30-team field at the 2011 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships.
The course will play to a par 72 and 7,012 yards for the three-day, 54-hole championship with tee times in Friday’s first round set to begin at 8 a.m. CDT. The tournament continues with the second round Saturday followed by the third and final round on Sunday to decide this year’s championship.
The Tigers have been rewarded for their success in recent years with a No. 17 national ranking in the Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 poll released last week.
Joining LSU as part of the 12-team field at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic include No. 3-ranked and defending champion Alabama, No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 9 Auburn, No. 15 Georgia and No. 16 Clemson. Rounding out this year’s field are Chattanooga, Kennesaw State, Middle Tennessee State, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wake Forest. LSU, Alabama, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State and Tennessee each competed in the field at the NCAA Championships a year ago.
Alabama has captured the team title in three of the last four seasons, including a four-shot victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in 2010 with its 54-hole score of 8-under par 856.
The Tigers are paired with SEC rivals Auburn and Tennessee in Friday’s opening round with tee times set to begin at 8 a.m. CDT on the front nine. Fans can track the Tigers during the throughout the event as live scoring of the 23rd Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic is provided by Golfstat.com.
LSU will feature a youthful starting lineup this weekend at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic as senior Sang Yi is the team’s only upperclassman and veteran of the NCAA Championships ready to compete for the season opener. Joining Yi in the lineup is their sophomore trio of Franco Castro, Smylie Kaufman and Andrew Presley, as well as freshman Curtis Thompson in his collegiate debut.
Yi set a new career-best with a 73.6 scoring average in 12 tournament starts during his junior season as he was the No. 3-ranked scorer on LSU’s talented roster in 2010-11.
Presley proved to be one of the top freshmen in the SEC with his performance a season ago while making eight starts for the Tigers. The Fort Worth native picked up one top-10 and three top-20 finishes as one of the team’s top performers. He is the team’s top returner with nine rounds of par or better as a freshman.
Both Castro and Kaufman earned experience as true freshmen a season ago as Castro made four starts and Kaufman made three starts for the Tigers during the 2010-11 season. Kaufman followed his true freshman season by winning the prestigious Alabama Amateur Championship over the summer.
A native of Coral Springs, Fla., Thompson is set to make his collegiate debut following a junior career for which he earned a reputation as one of the Top 20 recruits in the country for the Class of 2011.