BATON ROUGE – Members of the LSU men’s golf team will face a strong test as they open the 2012 fall season this weekend as they compete at the prestigious Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic that is slated to begin with Friday’s opening round at The Farm Golf Club in Rocky Face, Ga.
The Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic has earned a reputation as one of the top events of the fall season as The Farm Golf Club will play host to a deep 15-team field that features seven teams that are ranked in the Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 and six teams competing as part of the 30-team field at the 2012 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships a season ago.
The Tigers join an NCAA Championships caliber field in the three-day, 54-hole tournament as the course will play to a par 72 and 7,012 yards for the 24th edition of one of the nation’s premier events.
Friday’s first round is set to begin at 8 a.m. CT with tee times on holes No. 1 and No. 10. The tournament continues with the second round on Saturday and the final round on Sunday.
The 24th-annual Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic features each of the two clubs advancing to the national championship match back in the spring as No. 1-ranked and NCAA runner-up Alabama and No. 2-ranked and NCAA champion Texas highlight a deep 15-team field at The Farm this weekend.
The Tigers will also compete for the team title with such programs as No. 6-ranked Auburn, No. 7-ranked Georgia, No. 15-ranked North Florida, No. 19-ranked Georgia and No. 24-ranked Clemson. Rounding out the field are the 24th-ranked team in the Golfweek Preseason Top 25 in Chattanooga, as well as Kennesaw State, Middle Tennessee State, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wake Forest.
The Auburn Tigers are the defending team champion at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic after firing a winning 54-hole team score of 13-under par 851 for a five-shot win over Tennessee. Georgia Tech earned third place in the final team standings a season ago after trailing Auburn by six strokes.
Alabama sophomore Justin Thomas, the consensus National Player of the Year last season, is the reigning Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic champion with his winning score of 10-under par 206 a year ago.
The Tigers will compete with a five-man lineup that features two juniors in All-SEC performer Andrew Presley and Landon Lyons, two sophomores in Stewart Jolly and Curtis Thompson and standout freshman Zach Wright in their season opener at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic.
Presley and Thompson were honored on Wednesday as Golf World Top 50 Players to Watch nationally in the 2012-13 season as two of the top returning players in all of college golf. After capturing Second-Team All-SEC honors as a sophomore a season ago, Presley advanced to the Sweet 16 at the 112th United States Amateur Championship in August. Thompson was also a match play qualifier in the event.
Both Lyons and Jolly are poised for strong seasons in 2012-13, while Wright is set to make his debut with the Tigers this weekend after signing as one of the Top 10 recruits in the Class of 2012.
The Tigers are paired with Chattanooga and Georgia in Friday’s opening round as they are slated to begin from the front nine at 8 a.m. CDT. Fans can track the Tigers throughout the tournament as live scoring for the event will be provided by Golfstat and can be found online at www.golfstat.com.
Fans can also follow behind-the-scenes coverage of the Tigers this weekend and throughout the season by liking the LSU Men’s Golf page on Facebook and following @LSUMensGolf on Twitter.