NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Despite facing an 11-shot deficit for NCAA Championship qualification when teeing off in Saturday’s final round at The Course at Yale, the No. 2-seeded LSU Tigers turned around their fortunes and fired a tournament-low team score of 12-under par 268 to claim a fifth-place team finish at the NCAA New Haven Regional.
When the dust settled on Saturday afternoon, the 2015 SEC Champions claimed the fifth and final qualifying place into the field for the NCAA Championships by a single shot with their final 54-hole team score of 9-over par 849. LSU will join South Florida (826), San Diego State (840), Oklahoma State (842) and Vanderbilt (844) as the five qualifiers from the NCAA New Haven Regional.
It marks the fifth time in six seasons in which the Tigers will tee off at the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships after advancing to the NCAA Semifinals of match play during the 2014 championship.
While officially tying for third place at the NCAA Championships a year ago for their best national finish since the 1967 season, the Tigers have also recently finished in 24th place in 2010, 21st place in 2011 and tied for 23rd place in 2013 at the national tournament in recent seasons as one of the nation’s premier men’s golf programs.
“I’m very proud of our team,” shared LSU head coach Chuck Winstead of his team’s qualification for the NCAA Championships again this season. “We really struggled this week getting comfortable with this golf course, and in particular the greens. I’m proud of the way the guys handled adversity and continued to compete all the way to the end. We’re now looking forward to taking the next step at nationals.”
The Tigers found themselves in 10th place in the 14-team field at the start of the day after posting rounds of 14-over 294 and 7-over 287 for a 36-hole score of 21-over 581 through Friday’s action.
Knowing that only a top-five team finish would extend their season with qualification into the field for the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships, the SEC Champions went to work chipping away at the deficit after teeing off in Saturday’s final round in the second wave of teams off the back nine along with Arkansas and College of Charleston.
Senior Ben Taylor and sophomore Brandon Pierce led the charge by firing matching scores of 5-under par 65, and senior Stewart Jolly, junior Zach Wright and sophomore Eric Ricard each shot counting scores of 1-under par 69 for LSU’s final team score of 12-under par 268 on the day, finishing the day just one shot clear of No. 7 seed Iowa and No. 8 seed NC State in a tie for sixth place in the team standings at 10-over par 850.
NC State teed off Saturday in second place in the field with a two-day total of 6-over 566, while Iowa started off on the cusp of the Top 5 in sixth place with a score of 11-over 571 through the second round on Friday. In dramatic fashion, the Tigers overturned their 15-shot deficit to the Wolfpack and 10-shot deficit to the Hawkeyes to claim the final NCAA qualifying spot on the weekend.
The pace was set for LSU by both Taylor and Pierce as they turned in sparkling rounds of 5-under 65 to position the Tigers inside the Top 5 of the team standings. Taylor carded five birdies in a bogey-free round of 65 as he made birdie at the par-four 11th, par-four 14th and par-five 16th holes to make the turn at 3-under par for the day before finishing birdie-par-birdie on Nos. 7-9 to hole out at 5-under par. After trading two birdies and two bogeys on the back nine, Ricard finished with a flurry of five birdies on the front nine at Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 to match.
On the strength of their final-round performance, Taylor and Pierce tied as the top Tigers on the weekend while breaking into the Top 20 of the leaderboard in a tie for 17th place at 1-over par 211 for the regional.
While firing matching rounds of 1-under par 69 on Saturday afternoon, Jolly finished off the tournament in a tie for 22nd place with a final score of 2-over 212, while Ricard followed in a tie for 34th place at 5-over 215 and Wright trailed in a tie for 53rd place at 11-over 221. This weekend marked the NCAA Regional debuts for both Pierce and Ricard as LSU Tigers.
No. 16-ranked South Florida stormed to a comfortable 14-shot victory as the No. 3 seed in the field as the Bulls followed the Tigers with a team total of 11-under par 269 on Saturday and a winning score of 14-under 826 for the weekend. No. 6-seeded San Diego State followed in second place at even-par 840, while No. 20-ranked and No. 4-seeded Oklahoma State trailed in third place at 2-over par 842 and No. 5-ranked and No. 1 seed Vanderbilt rounded out the NCAA qualifiers in fourth place at 4-over par 844.
After teeing off Saturday with a narrow one-shot lead on the leaderboard, Oklahoma State’s Jordan Niebrugge extended his lead to three shots in the end as he fired a 1-under 69 in the final round to capture an NCAA Regional title with a winning score of 7-under par 203. Vanderbilt’s Matthias Schwab, Ohio State’s Addison Coll and Troy’s Tolver Dozier followed in a tie for second place at 4-under par 206.
With their fifth NCAA Championship qualification in six seasons now in the books, the Tigers will next wrap up their 2014-15 season at the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships to be held just under two weeks on May 29-June 3 at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida.
NCAA NEW HAVEN REGIONAL – FINAL ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 840)
1. South Florida 281-276-269 – 826 -14; 2. San Diego State 284-283-273 – 840 E; 3. Oklahoma State 286-284-272 – 842 +2; 4. Vanderbilt 285-282-277 – 844 +4; 5. LSU 294-287-268 – 849 +9; T6. Iowa 291-280-279 – 850 +10; T6. NC State 289-277-284 – 850 +10; 8. Ohio State 282-291-279 – 852 +12; 9. North Texas 291-282-282 – 855 +15; 10. Troy 289-289-278 – 856 +16; 11. Arkansas 301-289-281 – 871 +31; 12. College of Charleston 303-285-285 – 873 +33; 13. Robert Morris 305-292-282 – 879 +39; 14. Saint Peter’s 307-294-306 — 907 +67.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 210)
1. Jordan Niebrugge, Oklahoma State, 72-62-69 – 203 -7; T2. Addison Coll, Ohio State, 72-70-64 – 206 -4; T2. Tolver Dozier, Troy, 70-69-67 – 206 -4; T2. Matthias Schwab, Vanderbilt, 69-67-70 – 206 -4; T5. Clark Eagle, Ohio State, 68-73-66 – 207 -3; T5. Hunter Stewart, Vanderbilt, 70-71-66 – 207 -3; T5. Claudio Correa, South Florida, 73-67-67 – 207 -3; T5. Xander Schauffele, San Diego State, 70-70-67 – 207 -3; T5. Carter Page, NC State, 68-70-69 – 207 -3; T5. Dylan Wu, Northwestern, 68-70-69 – 207 -3.
LSU SCORES
T17. Brandon Pierce, 73-73-65 – 211 +1
T17. Ben Taylor, 73-73-65 – 211 +1
T22. Stewart Jolly, 74-69-69 – 212 +2
T34. Eric Ricard, 74-72-69 – 215 +5
T53. Zach Wright, 74-78-69 – 221 +11