CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico – The No. 3-ranked LSU Tigers were among just three teams to break par in Tuesday’s final round at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate as they closed strong with a team score of 3-under par 281 to catapult themselves six spots up the final team standings and into a tie for seventh place in the event held at Querencia Golf Club.
With junior standout Zach Wright leading the way once again with a team-low round of 2-under par 69, the Tigers broke par for the first time this week to tie the Baylor Bears for seventh place overall with their 54-hole score of 14-over par 866 after teeing off in the final round in 13th place overall out of the 14 teams in the field.
No. 2-ranked Florida State outlasted the field to take home an eight-shot victory over No. 9-ranked Vanderbilt with a winning score of 13-under par 839, including a 7-under par 277 in the final round.
The Commodores were the only other team in the field to break par in the final round as they fired a tournament-low 11-under par 273 to climb into second place in the final team standing. Second-round leader South Florida dropped to third place at 4-under 848, while Washington held its position in fourth place at 2-under 850 and Stanford followed in fifth place at 2-over 854 to round out the final Top 5.
Wright cracked the Top 10 of the leaderboard for the first time during the 2014-15 season as he followed his 1-over 72 in the first round and even-par 71 in the second round with a 2-under 69 on Tuesday afternoon for a three-day total of 1-under par 212 to finish the week in a tie for 10th place with the likes of Washington’s Corey Pereira and Jonathan Sanders and South Florida’s Chase Koepka.
After teeing off from hole No. 15 with Tuesday’s shotgun start, Wright was steady to start the round while making five-straight pars, but fell to 2-over par with a double bogey at the par-three second hole.
He then caught fire while making birdie on five of his next 11 holes at the par-five fourth, par-four seventh, par-five ninth, par-three 11th and par-four 12th holes to battle back to 3-under par for his round with just one hole to play. Despite giving back a shot with a bogey at the par-three 14th hole, Wright maintained his position in the Top 10 of the leaderboard with a 2-under 69 on the day and 1-under 212 for the championship.
Wright’s performance broke of streak of three-straight tournaments to end the 2014 fall season in which he tied for 13th place in each event while earning his first top-10 finish of his junior campaign.
The Tigers displayed a dramatic turn of fortune in the final round as senior All-American Stewart Jolly also broke par for the first time this week with a 1-under 70, and sophomores Brandon Pierce and Eric Ricard posted matching scores of even-par 71 to fuel the Tigers’ turnaround with counting scores toward the team’s final total. Senior Myles Lewis rounded out the lineup with a 4-over 75 in Tuesday’s action.
After tying for seventh place with a career-low 7-under par 209 at The Prestige at PGA West in LSU’s 2015 spring opener and his first action of the 2014-15 season, Pierce cracked the Top 20 of the final leaderboard here at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate this week with a final tournament score of 3-over par 216, including his even-par 71 in the final round.
Ricard followed his Tiger teammates in a tie for 31st place overall at 5-over 218, while Jolly finished in a tie for 46th place at 9-over 222 in his spring debut and Lewis ended the week in a tie for 62nd place at 16-over 229.
Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan, the No. 1-ranked player in all of college golf according to Golfstat, fired a 2-under 69 in the final round to take home a narrow one-stroke victory over Florida State’s Rowin Caron from a loaded field at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate with a winning score of 9-under par 204.
With the 2015 spring season now in full swing, the Tigers will take a short break before returning to action with back-to-back trips to the state of Florida as they will tee it up at the Talis Park Challenge being played from March 15-16 at Talis Park Golf Club in Naples and the Floridian Invitational being held March 24-25 at Floridian Golf Club in Palm City.
QUERENCIA CABO COLLEGIATE – FINAL ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 852)
1. Florida State 275-287-277 – 839 -13; 2. Vanderbilt 287-287-273 – 847 -5; 3. South Florida 276-283-289 – 848 -4; 4. Washington 282-281-287 – 850 -2; 5. Stanford 282-278-294 – 854 +2; 6. Houston 285-290-289 – 864 +12; T7. LSU 292-293-281 – 866 +14; T7. Baylor 288-290-288 – 866 +14; T9. Arkansas 291-293-285 – 869 +17; T9. Kentucky 290-288-291 – 869 +17; T11. Wake Forest 285-289-297 – 871 +19; T11. Ole Miss 287-291-293 – 871 +19; 13. Lamar 286-296-308 – 890 +38; 14. Rice 300-297-296 – 893 +41.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 213)
1. Cheng-Tsung Pan, Washington, 68-67-69 – 204 -9; 2. Rowin Caron, Florida State, 67-71-67 – 205 -8; 3. Kyle Jones, Baylor, 69-70-67 – 206 -7; T4. Hank Lebioda, Florida State, 67-73-67 – 207 -6; T4. Rigel Fernandes, South Florida, 64-71-72 — 207–6; T4. Will Zalatoris, Wake Forest, 70-68-69 – 207 -6; 7. Hunter Stewart, Vanderbilt, 70-71-67 – 208 -5; T8. Taylor Moore, Arkansas, 72-69-69 – 210 -3; T8. Viraat Badhwar, Stanford, 67-68-75 – 210 -3; T10. Zach Wright, LSU, 72-71-69 – 212 -1; T10. Corey Pereira, Washington, 69-68-75 – 212 -1; T10. Chase Koepka, South Florida, 69-70-73 – 212 -1; T10. Jonathan Sanders, Washington, 73-69-70 – 212 -1.
LSU SCORES
T10. Zach Wright, 72-71-69 – 212 -1
T20. Brandon Pierce, 73-72-71 – 216 +3
T31. Eric Ricard, 75-72-71 – 218 +5
T46. Stewart Jolly, 74-78-70 – 222 +9
T62. Myles Lewis, 73-81-75 – 229 +16