BURLINGTON, Iowa – With senior All-American Stewart Jolly leading the way by firing a 5-under par 67, four Tigers broke par in Sunday’s opening round at the 2014 Golfweek Conference Challenge to give the No. 9-ranked LSU men’s golf team a commanding eight-shot lead with a score of 10-under par 278 in the event being held at Spirit Hollow Golf Club.
Jolly’s opening-round 67 has given him a one-shot lead over SMU’s Austin Smotherman as he continues his hot start to the 2014 season after taking home a third-place finish from LSU’s season opener last weekend at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic. LSU sophomore Eric Ricard follows two shots back in third place after carding a career-low 3-under 69 on Sunday afternoon.
Senior All-American Ben Taylor and junior standout Zach Wright also cracked the Top 10 while firing matching rounds of 1-under par 71 to tie for sixth place to round out the scoring for the Tigers.
The Tigers have now broken par in each of their four rounds to open the 2014 fall season as they smashed their best score of 6-under par 282 in the first round of the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic last weekend. They hold a commanding eight-shot lead over tournament host Iowa as the Hawkeyes posted a 2-under par 286 on Sunday. SMU was the only other team to break par with a 1-under 287 to follow in third place.
Eastern Michigan trails in fourth place overall with a team score of 5-over par 293 and San Jose State follows in fifth place at 6-over 294 to round out the Top 5 teams overall at the Golfweek Conference Challenge.
Jolly has caught fire to start the 2014 fall season as he is now a cumulative 14-under par in his four rounds played to kick off the campaign. He took home a third-place finish at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic a week ago by firing the second-lowest tournament score of his collegiate career at 9-under par 207, including a 6-under par 66 in the final round of the event played at The Farm Golf Club.
The Birmingham, Alabama, native followed with a bogey-free opening round Sunday as he carded five birdies on the day to grab an early lead in defense of his individual title at the Golfweek Conference Challenge. He shared medalist honors in the event a year ago to win the second tournament title of his collegiate career.
Jolly dipped into red figures with three birdies on the front nine at the par-three third, par-four sixth and par-four ninth holes before adding a pair of birdies at the par-four 11th and 14th holes for his 5-under par 67.
Ricard was impressive himself while carding four birdies with just one bogey on his round for a career-low score of 3-under par 69 to finish the day in third place on the individual leaderboard. Ricard birdied three of the four par-fives on the course at Nos. 2, 10 and 18 while adding a fourth birdie at the par-four 11th hole along with his only bogey of the day at the par-four 14th hole en route to a 3-under 69.
The Shreveport native eclipsed his previous career-low round of 1-under par 71 that he fired in the opening round at the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational as a freshman a year ago during the 2013 fall season.
Taylor and Wright continue to match one another stride-for-stride early in the 2014 fall season while firing matching scores of 1-under 71 on Sunday to finish the day in a tie for sixth place on the leaderboard. They fired matching 54-hole scores of 3-under par 213 to tie one another for 16th place in the final standings at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic a week ago.
Freshman Blake Caldwell also opened the Golfweek Conference Challenge with the lowest score of his young career with a 1-over par 73 to finish the day in a tie for 17th place overall. He last carded a 2-over par 74 with the second round of his collegiate debut at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic last weekend before being forced to withdraw at the start of the final round due to illness.
The Tigers will be paired with Iowa and SMU in Monday’s second round at the Golfweek Conference Challenge and will tee off in the final wave off the front nine beginning at 9:50 a.m. CT. Fans can follow the Tigers by logging on to http://www.golfstat.com as Golfstat will provide live scoring of the second and third rounds of the event.
GOLFWEEK CONFERENCE CHALLENGE – FIRST ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 288)
1. LSU 278 -10; 2. Iowa 286 -2; 3. SMU 287 -1; 4. Eastern Michigan 293 +5; 5. San Jose State 294 +6; T6. Southeastern Louisiana 295 +7; T6. Texas State 295 +7; 8. Xavier 298 +10; 9. Austin Peay 299 +11; 10. Oregon State 301 +13; 11. UTEP 304 +16; 12. Richmond 307 +19.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 72)
1. Stewart Jolly, LSU, 67 -5; 2. Austin Smotherman, SMU, 68 -4; 3. Eric Ricard, LSU, 69 -3; T4. Nate Yankovich, Iowa, 70 -2; T4. Austin Kramer, Austin Peay, 70 -2; T6. Ben Taylor, LSU, 71 -1; T6. Zach Wright, LSU, 71 -1; T6. Daniel Jaramillo, Xavier, 71 -1; T6. Brett White, Eastern Michigan, 71 -1; T6. Kyle Rodes, Eastern Michigan, 71 -1; Carson Schaake, Iowa, 71 -1.
LSU SCORES
1. Stewart Jolly, 67 -5
3. Eric Ricard, 69 -3
T6. Ben Taylor, 71 -1
T6. Zach Wright, 71 -1
T17. Blake Caldwell, 73 +1