LSU Gold

Men's Golf Looks to Defend Title at University Club

by Will Stafford (@WillStaffordLSU)
Men's Golf to Host David Toms Intercollegiate Round 1 Tee Times Tournament Homepage +0
Men's Golf Looks to Defend Title at University Club

BATON ROUGE – Tiger fans will have the chance to see the 2015 NCAA Champions in action this weekend as members of the LSU Men’s Golf team are back home to defend their team championship at the seventh-annual David Toms Intercollegiate being held Saturday and Sunday at its home course at the University Club in Baton Rouge.

The course will play to a par 72 and 7,001 yards for the two-day championship as teams will play 36 holes on Saturday and a final 18 holes on Sunday with each day starting with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. CT.

The Tigers are the defending champions of their home tournament and have enjoyed great success with four team titles in the six previous years of the David Toms Intercollegiate, including back-to-back victories back in 2009 and 2010 in the first two years of the event when being held at the Country Club of Louisiana and again in 2012 in its debut season at the University Club.

They defended their home turf a year ago with a two-shot victory over Southeastern Louisiana while posting their winning score of 27-over par 891 in 54 holes. Former Tiger All-American Ben Taylor was the only player in the field to break par in the event when he fired a winning score of 2-under par 214 to win his first individual title as an LSU Tiger.

While the Tigers have won four team titles at the David Toms Intercollegiate, they have also produced three individual champions with Austin Gutgsell (2010) and Andrew Presley (2012) joining Taylor as winners.

LSU’s victory at the David Toms Intercollegiate last fall helped spark a historic 2014-15 season in which the squad equaled a program record with five tournament wins in its 12 appearances, including a sweep of SEC and NCAA championships as the premier program in college golf. The Tigers were also crowned champions of the Golfweek Conference Challenge and Talis Park Intercollegiate a season ago.

Six squads return to the University Club for this weekend’s David Toms Intercollegiate after appearing in the event a year ago as the defending champion Tigers and runner-up Lions from Southeastern Louisiana will be joined once again by Central Arkansas, Iowa State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana Tech. Rounding out the field are DePaul, Iowa, Kansas State, Liberty, Louisiana-Monroe, Navy and Pennsylvania.

The Tigers are paired with Iowa from the Big Ten Conference and Iowa State from the Big 12 Conference during Saturday’s action at the seventh-annual David Toms Intercollegiate as they will tee off from holes Nos. 1-4 with a shotgun start set for 8:30 a.m. CT. Golfstat will provide live scoring of the event as fans can follow the Tigers in action by going online to http://www.golfstat.com.

Tiger fans have the opportunity to watch three All-Americans from LSU’s NCAA-title-winning lineup in action this weekend as senior Zach Wright and juniors Brandon Pierce and Eric Ricard headline the event.

Wright fired out of the blocks in his senior season by tying for fourth place in LSU’s season opener at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic in Rocky Face, Georgia, back on Sept. 11-13 where he posted a 1-under 215 in 54 holes at The Farm Golf Club, including a career-low 6-under 66 in the final round. He ranks second on the team with a 72.50 stroke average through two events this fall.

A PING Honorable Mention All-American during his junior season in 2014-15, Wright has enjoyed great success in his three previous starts at the David Toms Intercollegiate at the University Club as he earned 12th place as a freshman in 2012, a tie for 10th place as a sophomore in 2013 and a tie for 13th place as a junior last fall.

Ricard, also a PING Honorable Mention All-American back in the spring, is set to make his third start of the season and third career start at the David Toms Intercollegiate this weekend. He will look to help pace LSU to a defense of its team title from a year ago while improving upon his tie for 35th place in 2013 and tie for 33rd place on the final leaderboard a year ago in two previous appearances at the David Toms Intercollegiate.

Pierce is set to make his first appearance of the fall season after sitting out the first two tournaments while recovery from an injury. He joined Wright and Ricard as an All-American a year ago as a both a third-team pick by Golfweek and honorable mention selection by PING. Pierce broke David Toms’ single-season scoring record with a  career-low 71.16 scoring average in his eight starts for the national champions.

Two members of LSU’s heralded 2015 recruiting class round out the team’s lineup this weekend as former high school teammates Sam Burns and Nathan Jeansonne will make their debut at the University Club.

Burns, the nation’s No. 1-ranked high school recruit in the Class of 2015 from Shreveport’s Calvary Baptist Academy, has been one of the team’s top performers to open the fall season as he has claimed top-20 finishes with a tie for 19th place in his collegiate debut at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic followed by a tie for 16th place at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in his last appearance.

Jeansonne, who also hails from Calvary Baptist Academy, was impressive in his collegiate debut at the Golfweek Conference Challenge as he fired rounds of 1-under 71 and 3-under 69 over the final two days of play to climb into a tie 23rd place in his first action as a Tiger. He finished even-par in his first collegiate event after opening with a score of 4-over 76 at Spirit Hollow Golf Course.

LSU’s freshmen have proven to be two of the team’s leading scorers in the early part of the season as Jeansonne boasts a team-best 72.00 scoring average and Burns has posted a 72.67 scoring average thus far.

Two Tigers will compete as individuals this weekend as junior Rhyne Jones and sophomore Blake Caldwell will each make their second appearance of the 2015 fall season. Caldwell was in the lineup for LSU’s fall opener at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic while Jones earned a spot in the starting five at the Golfweek Conference Challenge.

The David Toms Intercollegiate is named in honor of the most prolific golfer in the history of the LSU Men’s Golf program. A three-time All-American at LSU from 1985-89, Toms won three First-Team All-SEC honors and the 1987 SEC Championship to highlight a storied collegiate career. He was also twice named the SEC Player of the Year in 1988 and 1989.

Toms has since enjoyed one of the most successful careers in the history of the PGA TOUR, highlighted by 13 TOUR victories and a major championship victory at the 2001 PGA Championship held at the Atlanta Athletic Club. He has also won more than $41 million in career earnings since joining the PGA TOUR in 1996 while ranking No. 7 on the tour’s all-time money list.

After playing host to the seventh-annual David Toms Intercollegiate this weekend, the Tigers will continue their 2015 fall season with a return trip to The Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta to compete at this year’s U.S. Collegiate Championship hosted by Georgia Tech from Oct. 16-18. They will then wrap up the fall season at the inaugural East Lake Cup being held Nov. 2-3 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.