BATON ROUGE – After opening the month of March by tying for seventh place at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate, the No. 6-ranked LSU Men’s Golf team will be back in action this weekend with a trip to Naples, Florida, to compete at the second-annual Talis Park Challenge hosted by Ball State University on Sunday and Monday at Talis Park Golf Club.
The two-day, 54-hole championship begins with a shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. CT on both days of the event as Talis Park Golf Club will play to a par 71 and 6,891 yards for the championship.
The Tigers kicked off their 2015 spring season by tying for fourth place in a 14-team NCAA Championship caliber field at The Prestige at PGA West on Feb. 16-18 before tying for seventh place out of the 14 teams during their last start at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate held two weeks ago. They are set to make their debut appearance at the Talis Park Challenge that now enters its second season of competition.
The Tigers enter the event ranked as high as No. 6 nationally in the latest Golfweek Men’s Collegiate Team Rankings as they look to challenge 15 programs for their third tournament title of the 2014-15 season.
LSU is sure to battle Southeastern Conference rivals Vanderbilt and Texas A&M for the top spot on the medal podium as the Commodores are the No. 5-ranked team nationally and the Aggies crack the nation’s Top 50 as the No. 46-ranked team in the country in the Golfweek men’s ranking. Rounding out the 15-team field competing at the Talis Park Challenge this week are host Ball State, Akron, Eastern Michigan, Florida Gulf Coast, Indiana, Miami (Ohio), Michigan State, Northern Illinois, Notre Dame, Toledo, Xavier and Wichita State.
Vanderbilt returns as the defending team champion at the Talis Park Challenge after the Commodores stormed to a 19-shot victory over runner-up Wichita State with a winning tournament score of 7-over par 871 with their performance last season. Commodore junior Carson Jacobs also returns to defend the individual title he shared with Austin Peay’s Marco Iten a year ago with a winning total of 1-under par 215.
LSU is paired with Ball State and Vanderbilt on Sunday as they will tee off from holes Nos. 1-4 with a shotgun start scheduled for 7:30 a.m. CT. Live scoring can be found online at http://www.birdiefire.com.
While being ranked as high as the No. 6-ranked team nationally in the most recent Golfweek Men’s Collegiate Team Rankings, the Tigers enter the championship ranked among the top teams nationwide in each of the three major polls in college golf as they are also the No. 12-ranked team in the NCAA in the current Golfstat Top 25 and Bushnell Golfweek Coaches’ Top 25 polls.
Seniors Ben Taylor and Stewart Jolly will once again lead the Tigers into action as they are poised for another All-American season in 2014-15 on the back of their respective All-American campaigns a season ago.
Taylor averages 72.27 strokes per round in his five tournament appearances this season as he makes his return to the lineup for the first time since opening the 2015 spring season at The Prestige at PGA West. Taylor is looking for his third top-10 individual finish of the season that includes a tie for fifth place at the Golfweek Conference Challenge and a victory at the David Toms Intercollegiate during the 2014 fall season.
Jolly follows with a strong 72.53 scoring average in five tournament starts of his own as he has matched Taylor’s output with a team-leading two top-five finishes on the season. Jolly, who made his 2015 spring debut at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate two weeks ago, opened the fall with a third-place finish at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic and a victory at the Golfweek Conference Challenge.
Junior Zach Wright returns to the lineup on the back of his first top-10 finish of the 2014-15 season while tying for 10th place as the top Tiger at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate. He enters the Talis Park Challenge rated the fourth-leading scorer in the Tiger team with a 72.33 scoring average while also making five tournament starts.
Rounding out LSU’s lineup teeing it up in Florida this week are sophomores Eric Ricard and Brandon Pierce as Ricard makes his team-leading sixth start of the year and Pierce makes his third appearance of the spring.
After sitting out the entire 2014 fall season with a back injury, Pierce is off to a flying start this spring while posting a team-leading 70.83 scoring average through LSU’s previous two events in 2015. Pierce’s performance includes a tie for 10th place in his sophomore debut at The Prestige at PGA West where he fired a career-low 7-under par 209 and a tie for 20th place at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate. Ricard leads the Tigers with a trio of top-10 individual finishes on the season while posting a 72.28 scoring average to rank third in the squad.
After competing at the second-annual Talis Park Challenge for the first time this week, the Tigers will return to the state of Florida in a week’s time as they continue their 2015 spring season from March 23-24 with their return to the Valspar Invitational at Floridian in an event hosted by the University of Houston at Floridian Golf Club in Palm City, Florida.