BATON ROUGE – The No. 16-ranked LSU men’s golf team looks to build momentum as it continues the 2012 spring season this week with an appearance at the 27th-annual Louisiana Classics that will tee off Monday morning at Louisiana-Lafayette’s Oakbourne Country Club.
This marks the third-straight season in which the Tigers will make the short drive West on Interstate-10 to compete at the Louisiana Classics as the 15-team field will play two rounds on Monday before the final round on Tuesday to decide the two-day, 54-hole championship. Monday’s first round is slated to begin at 8 a.m. CT with a shotgun start, while Tuesday’s final round begins with tee times at 8 a.m.
Oakbourne Country Club will play to a part 72 and a distance of 6,898 yards for the 26th-annual Louisiana Classics tournament hosted by the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
Live scoring of the event will be provided by Golfstat and can be found online at www.golfstat.com. Fans can also receive live updates of the Tigers competing during this year’s Louisiana Classics event by liking LSU Men’s Golf on Facebook and following @LSUMensGolf on Twitter.
The Tigers have enjoyed tremendous success at the Louisiana Classics in recent seasons while capturing a team championship in 2010 and earning a runner-up finish in the final team standings in 2011.
The Tigers posted a winning score of even-par 864 to take the team crown in 2010, including a team score of 11-under par 277 in the second round to finish two shots clear of Illinois. The Fighting Illini fired a 10-under par 206 to earn a six-shot victory over the runner-up Tigers in the event a year ago.
The Tigers are ranked as high as No. 16 nationally in the latest Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches’ Top 25 as they prepare to tee off Monday. They are also No. 25 in this week’s Golfstat Top 25 ranking.
The tournament also features No. 20-ranked Kent State as the Golden Flashes are among the contenders for the team title along with LSU, Illinois and host Louisiana-Lafayette. Rounding out the 15-team field at the Louisiana Classics championship is Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Memphis, NC State, SMU, South Alabama, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Miss, Texas State, Tulsa and Texas-San Antonio.
The Tigers will play alongside Illinois and Louisiana-Lafayette during Monday’s action as they will begin on holes Nos. 1-3 with a shotgun start to the tournament scheduled for 8 a.m.
After opening his spring season with an impressive performance in tying for fourth place at the John Hayt Invitational a week ago, senior Sang Yi headlines a five-man starting lineup that looks to capture a second team title at the Louisiana Classics tournament in three seasons.
Yi fired rounds of 5-under 67, 1-over 73 and 2-over 74 to record his third top-five finish and fourth top-10 finish of the season with a 54-hole score of 2-under 214 at the John Hayt Invitational held last week.
The senior from Carrollton, Texas, has also enjoyed his share of success in two career appearances for the Tigers at the Louisiana Classics, which includes a tie for 10th place on the leaderboard with a score of 1-over par 217 during his sophomore season in 2010. While playing as an individual a year ago, Yi carded a final score of 4-over par 220 to finish in a tie for 21st place in the final standings.
Yi will be joined in LSU’s five-man lineup at the Louisiana Classic by senior Austin Gutgsell, sophomore Landon Lyons, sophomore Andrew Presley and freshman Stewart Jolly. Sophomore Franco Castro, sophomore Smylie Kaufman and freshman Myles Lewis will each play as individuals this week.