BATON ROUGE – Two former LSU Tigers kicked of the 2015-16 PGA TOUR season this weekend by cracking the Top 10 of the final leaderboard at the Frys.com Open as Andrew Loupe and Smylie Kaufman both tied for 10th place overall with matching scores of 11-under par 277 in the event held at Silverado Country Club in Napa, California.
Loupe earned his third career top-10 finish while kicking off his third season on the PGA TOUR, while Kaufman cracked the Top 10 in a PGA TOUR event for the first time as a tour rookie in 2015-16.
The two former Tigers both took home $128,571 in earnings from their season debut while finishing four shots off the pace by this year’s Frys.com Open champion Emiliano Grillo, who defeated Kevin Na in a two-hole, sudden-death playoff after firing scores of 15-under par 273 for 72 holes. Jason Bohn, Justin Thomas and Tyrone Van Aswegen each finished a shot back in a tie for third place.
Loupe, who last cracked the Top 10 in a PGA TOUR event at the 2015 Barbasol Championship in Opelika, Alabama, back in July, actually teed off in the final group in Sunday’s final round after finishing 54 holes in a tie for second place overall. His tournament was highlighted by a course-record 9-under 63 in Friday’s second round when he carded 10 birdies on the North Course at Silverado Country Club.
Kaufman vaulted himself 17 spots up the leaderboard in the final round as he matched his first-round score of 4-under 68 to claim his first career top-10 finish in a PGA TOUR event in only his fourth appearance.
Loupe kept his PGA TOUR card for a third-straight season after finishing No. 4 in the money list in the Web.com Tour Finals that included his second professional win at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship at the end of September. Kaufman earned his PGA TOUR card for the first time following a brilliant rookie season on the Web.com Tour where he placed No. 7 on the final regular-season money list.
Sunday’s result marks the first time for two LSU Tigers to finish in the Top 10 of the leaderboard in a PGA TOUR event since the 2012 U.S. Open Championship when former All-Americans David Toms and John Peterson both tied for fourth place for one of the best performances by past LSU golfers in a major championship.