BATON ROUGE – Members of the LSU men’s golf team have earned the right to compete for the national championship for the second-straight season after earning the No. 7 seed in match play following Monday’s final round with a final score of 17-over par 1,169 in stroke play qualifying at the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships.
After teeing off in the fourth round of stroke play in third place overall, the Tigers sealed their spot in the “Race for the Eight” for match play with a team score of 10-over par 298 on Monday afternoon to claim seventh place in the field and the No. 7 seed in the national quarterfinals where they will square off against No. 2 seed Vanderbilt on Tuesday morning.
The Tigers and Commodores will meet in Match No. 1 of the quarterfinal round as they will tee off from the first hole beginning at 6 a.m. CT and running through the final pairing at 6:40 a.m.
Match No. 2 on LSU’s side of the bracket in the national quarterfinals features No. 3 seed Georgia against No. 6 seed South Florida as they will also tee off beginning at 6 a.m. from the back nine. Matches No. 3 and No. 4 will follow beginning at 6:50 a.m. as No. 1 seed Illinois faces No. 8 seed UCLA from the front nine and No. 4 seed Texas faces No. 5 seed Southern California from the back nine.
Golf Channel’s live coverage of the NCAA Championships continues Tuesday with the Golf Central Pregame coverage from 8:30-9:30 a.m. followed by coverage of the quarterfinal matches from 9:30-11:30 a.m. There is also live coverage of the national semifinals on Tuesday afternoon as Golf Central Pregame will again air from 2-2:30 p.m. followed by the semifinal action on the course from 2:30-6 p.m.
LSU tees off Tuesday with experience on its side after advancing to the Final Four of match play last season for its best finish at the NCAA Championships in 47 years. The Tigers, competing as the No. 3 seed after trying for second place in stroke play a year ago, took down No. 6 seed UCLA by a 4-1 margin in the NCAA quarterfinals before falling to No. 2 seed and eventual national champion Alabama by the same score in the semifinal. It marked LSU’s best finish at the NCAA Championships since finishing in third place in 1967.
The SEC Champions played a difficult layout at Concession Golf Club in 17-over par for four rounds after also posting scores of 4-over 292 in the first, 1-over 289 in the second and 2-over 290 in the third rounds.
Illinois, the NCAA runner-up in 2013, earned the top seed in match play after posting the lowest 72-hole score in the field at 3-over 1,155. Vanderbilt followed two shots back in second place at 5-over 1,157, while Texas and Georgia finished three shots off the pace in a tie for third place at 6-over 1,158. USC (1,161), South Florida (1,168), LSU (1,169) and UCLA (1,172) rounded out the eight-team field for match play.
Two Tigers nearly cracked the Top 10 of the individual leaderboard with their performance at this year’s NCAA Championships as junior Zach Wright and sophomore Brandon Pierce tied one another for 11th place in the final stroke-play standings. Pierce posted a 1-over par 73 and Wright added a 3-over par 75 on Monday as the two Second-Team All-SEC performers finished off matching 72-hole scores of 1-over par 289.
By firing rounds of 71-71-73-73 in his debut appearance at the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships, Pierce will end the season as the team’s leading scorer with a 71.16 scoring average in his eight tournaments of the 2014-15 season. Pierce’s performance breaks David Toms’ single-season school-record scoring average of 71.27 recorded in 43 rounds played during his senior season in 1988-89.
Sophomore All-SEC performer Eric Ricard was impressive in his NCAA Championship debut as he added a counting score of 6-over 78 for the Tigers on Monday for a total of 4-over 292 to tie for 27th place overall.
After opening with back-to-back rounds of 10-over 82 on Friday and Saturday and a 5-over 77 on Sunday, senior All-American Stewart Jolly bounced back in a big way to post the low round of the day for the Tigers with an even-par 72 to move up to 81st place for the championship. The two-time All-SEC selection carded four birdies and four bogeys on his round to finish level for the day.
Fellow senior All-American Ben Taylor finished one spot better than Jolly on the final leaderboard as he carded a round of 82 on Monday to finish at 23-over par 311 for 72 holes in the championship.
Pairings in Match No. 1 of the quarterfinals between LSU and Vanderbilt are set as Pierce will play Theo Humphrey at 6 a.m. CT, Taylor will battle Matthias Schwab at 6:10 a.m., Wright will go up against Carson Jacobs at 6:20 a.m., Ricard will take on Zach Jaworski at 6:30 a.m. and Jolly will go up against Hunter Stewart at 6:40 a.m. to round out the tee times.
Monday’s final round of stroke play also featured a dramatic conclusion in the race to be crowned the NCAA individual champion as SMU’s Bryson Dechambeau edged Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan by a single stroke with a winning score of 8-under par 280. Pan pushed Dechambeau to the wire with a brilliant round of 5-under 67 on Monday, but the Mustang standout managed a final-round 71 to take home the title.
Illinois’ Thomas Detry and Vanderbilt’s Stewart were just two shots back in a tie for third place on the final leaderboard with their matching scores of 6-under par 282 in the 72 holes of stroke-play competition.
By advancing to the eight-team match-play tournament for the national championship again this spring, the Tigers have already clinched a Top 10 team finish at the NCAA Championships for the second-straight season, as well as the 21st time in program history in their 36 appearances all-time at the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships.
If the Tigers take down the Commodores in the quarterfinal round, they will advance to the NCAA Final Four for the second season running where they will meet the winner of Match No. 2 featuring Georgia and South Florida beginning at approximately 12:30 p.m. CT from the first tee. Live scoring of the match play tournament can also be found online at http://ncaasports.com.
NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP – FOURTH ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 1152)
1. Illinois 286-292-296-282 – 1155 +3; 2. Vanderbilt 301-284-287-285 – 1157 +5; T3. Georgia 288-293-286-291 – 1158 +6; T3. Texas 294-300-280-284 – 1158 +6; 5. Southern California 289-285-296-291 – 1161 +9; 6. South Florida 294-291-292-291 – 1168 +16; 7. LSU 292-289-290 -298 – 1169 +17; 8. UCLA 294-304-280-294 – 1172 +20; 9. Georgia Tech 293-295-290-297 – 1175 +23; 10. TCU 296-293-291-299 – 1179 +27; 11. Florida State 298-292-293-298 – 1181 +29; 12. Auburn 301-290-296-296 – 1183 +31; 13. South Carolina 301-298-288-300 – 1187 +35; 14. SMU 296-303-291-302 – 1192 +40; 15. San Diego State 290-299-298-306 – 1193 +41.
TOP 20 INDIVIDUALS (Par 288)
1. Bryson Dechambeau, SMU, 70-67-72-71 – 280 -8; 2. Cheng-Tsung Pan, Washington, 72-70-72-67 – 281 -7; T3. Thomas Detry, Illinois, 68-71-73-70 – 282 -6; T3. Hunter Stewart, Vanderbilt, 74-69-71-68 – 282 -6; 5. Paul Dunne, UAB, 72-69-69-73 – 283 -5; 6. Claudio Correa, South Florida, 68-75-69-72 – 284 -4; 7. Andrew Presley, TCU, 73-70-72-70 – 285 -3; T8. Doug Ghim, Texas, 72-73-70-71 – 286 -2; T8. Riley Davenport, Charlotte, 70-74-72-70 – 286 -2; 10. Beau Hossler, Texas, 72-75-69-71 – 287 -1; T11. Brandon Pierce, LSU, 71-71-73-73 – 288 E; T11. Zach Wright, LSU, 70-70-73-75 – 288 E; T11. Matthias Schwab, Vanderbilt, 75-71-73-69 – 288 E; T11. Zack Jaworski, Vanderbilt, 71-74-71-72 – 288 E; T11. Mookie DeMoss, Georgia, 71-74-70-73 – 288 E; T16. Jake Shuman, Duke, 69-78-71-71 – 289 +1; T16. Will Starke, South Carolina, 78-71-70-70 – 289 +1; T16. Zachary Olsen, Oklahoma State, 71-71-75-72 – 289 +1; T16. Sean Crocker, Southern California, 73-68-75-73 – 289 +1; T16. Zach Healy, Georgia, 70-72-70-77 – 289 +1; T16. Preston Valder, UCLA, 74-75-68-72 – 289 +1.
LSU SCORES
T11. Brandon Pierce, 71-71-73-73 – 288 E
T11. Zach Wright, 70-70-73-75 – 288 E
T27. Eric Ricard, 72-74-68-78 – 292 +4
80. Ben Taylor, 79-74-76-82 – 311 +23
81. Stewart Jolly, 82-82-77-72 – 313 +25