ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – With sophomore standout Brandon Pierce firing a nearly flawless opening-round 3-under par 69, the No. 7-ranked LSU Tigers wrapped up Friday’s first round at the 2015 SEC Men’s Golf Championships five shots off the lead in second place with a score of 6-under par 284 at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course.
The Tigers, runners-up to Alabama at the SEC Championships a season ago, have positioned themselves for an SEC-title challenge heading into the weekend thanks to a strong opening day at Sea Island Golf Club after also counting scores of 2-under 68 by senior Stewart Jolly, 1-under 69 by sophomore Eric Ricard and even-par 70 by junior Zach Wright in the first round.
The Tigers turned in a brilliant 6-under par 274 on their round to finish the day five shots behind the three-time defending SEC Champion Crimson Tide in first place overall with a score of 11-under par 269.
The No. 6-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks and No. 15-ranked Auburn Tigers closed the day six shots behind Alabama and just one shot behind LSU in a tie for fourth place overall at 5-under par 275. The No. 5-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores, the top-ranked team in the field at this year’s SEC Championships, rounded out the Top 5 of the team standings in fifth place with an opening 4-under par 276.
As he has done for much of the 2015 spring season, Pierce set the pace for the Tigers while firing a 3-under par 67 in his first career round at the SEC Men’s Golf Championships to end the day in a tie for fifth place.
Pierce, who was the first Tiger on the course while teeing off from the first tee at 6:30 a.m. CT, fired out of the blocks with a birdie at the par-four first hole before dropping to 2-under par on his round with his birdie at the par-four eighth hole on the front nine. After giving a shot back with his lone bogey of the day at the par-four 14th hole, Pierce rebounded nicely with birdies at the par-five 15th and par-four 18th holes to finish off his round of 67 and crack the Top 5 of the individual leaderboard through 18 holes at this year’s championship.
Making his fourth-straight SEC Championship appearance for the Tigers, Jolly is off to a fast start with an opening-round 2-under 68 to finish the day on the cusp of the Top 10 in a tie for 11th place overall. Jolly picked up shots with birdies at the par-three sixth, par-four eighth, par-four 14th and par-five 15th holes to go along with bogeys at the par-four fourth and par-three 17th holes for a 68.
Like Pierce, Ricard played his first career round at the SEC Championships on Friday while carding four birdies and three bogeys in an impressive round of 1-under 69. Ricard broke through the Top 20 of the leaderboard in his SEC debut as he left the 18th green in a tie for 15th place on the first-round leaderboard ahead of Saturday’s second round.
Wright canceled two birdies with two bogeys for an even-par 70 in the opening round to finish the day in a tie for 23rd place individually and help position the Tigers for an SEC-title challenge going into the weekend.
LSU’s senior All-American Ben Taylor rounded out the Tiger lineup with an opening-round 3-over par 73 to wrap up Friday’s action in a tie for 47th place overall for the individual leaderboard. Taylor is LSU’s top returning performer from the SEC Championships last spring when he tied for 13th place in the field while making his SEC Championships debut.
Three golfers fired matching rounds of 5-under 65 to finish Friday’s opener tied atop the leaderboard as Arkansas’ Kolton Crawford, South Carolina’s Matthew NeSmith and Alabama’s Robby Shelton left Sea Island one shot clear of South Carolina’s Will Starke, who kicked off the championship with an opening-round 4-under 66. Pierce is just two shots back in a six-way tie for fifth place with his 3-under 67 in his SEC debut.
The Tigers are paired with Alabama and Auburn in Saturday’s second round at the 2015 SEC Men’s Golf Championship as they will tee off in the final wave off the front nine beginning at 8:10 a.m. CDT. Golfstat provides the live scoring from the SEC Championships as fans can follow the Tigers in action online throughout the day in the second and third rounds at http://www.golfstat.com.
2015 SEC MEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS – FIRST ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 280)
1. Alabama 269 -11; 2. LSU 274 -6; T3. Auburn 275 -5; T3. South Carolina 275 -5; 5. Vanderbilt 276 -4; 6. Arkansas 279 -1; T7. Florida 282 +2; T7. Georgia 282 +2; T9. Tennessee 284 +4; T9. Kentucky 284 +4; 11. Texas A&M 286 +6; 12. Missouri 287 +7; 13. Ole Miss 288 +8; 14. Mississippi State 289 +9.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 70)
T1. Matthew NeSmith, South Carolina, 65 -5; T1. Kolton Crawford, Arkansas, 65 -5; T1. Robby Shelton, Alabama, 65 -5; 4. Will Starke, South Carolina, 66 -4; T5. Brandon Pierce, LSU, 67 -3; T5. Jonathan Hardee, Alabama, 67 -3; T5. Tyler McDaniel, Kentucky, 67 -3; T5. Ben Schlottman, Auburn, 67 -3; T5. Zach Healy, Georgia, 67 -3; T5. Alejandro Tosti, Florida, 67 -3.
LSU SCORES
T5. Brandon Pierce, 67 -3
T11. Stewart Jolly, 68 -2
T15. Eric Ricard, 69 -1
T23. Zach Wright, 70 E
T47. Ben Taylor, 73 +3