ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – With the start of the NCAA’s 2015 spring season still a month away, LSU sophomore Brandon Pierce kicked off his calendar year with an impressive performance at the prestigious New Year’s Invitational while firing a 72-hole score of 7-under par 281 to finish one shot back as the runner-up last weekend at St. Petersburg Country Club.
Pierce teed off in Sunday’s final round only one shot off the lead shared by defending champion and University of Florida recruit Sam Horsfield, U.S. Amateur champion Gunn Yang and University of North Carolina star Michael McGowan after opening with his scores of 1-under 71, 2-under 70 and 1-under 71 in the first three rounds of the four-day, 72-hole championship.
McGowan and Yang each ended with matching scores of even-par 72 in the final round to fall back into a tie for third place, opening the door for Pierce to challenge Horsfield for the title heading to the 72nd hole.
After teeing off on the par-five 18th hole tied atop the leaderboard at 6-under par for the championship, Pierce seemed to position himself for a shot at the title after leaving his approach just one foot from the cup for a birdie putt and with Horsfield needing to get up-and-down from a difficult 25-yard chip to match the Tiger sophomore.
That’s when the championship turned on its head as Horsfield played a bump-and-run with his 8-iron as the ball tracked to the flag, hit the stick and dropped for an eagle 3 to seal a successful defense of his title. Pierce tapped in for his birdie to remain one shot back of Horsfield as each ended the championship with matching rounds of 3-under par 69 at St. Petersburg Country Club.
Horsfield retained the title with a final score of 8-under 280, followed by Pierce in second place at 7-under 281 and Yang and McGowan each in a tie for third place at 5-under 283 on the final leaderboard.
Following his runner-up finish at the 2015 New Year’s Invitational, Pierce has returned to the LSU campus with the rest of his teammates for the start of the new semester this week as they will now begin preparations for LSU’s spring opener at The Prestige at PGA West that will be held from Feb. 16-18 at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California.