BATON ROUGE – On the strength of his tournament-low score of 8-under par 64 in the second round last Friday afternoon, LSU’s junior All-American Brandon Pierce cracked the Top 10 of the final leaderboard at the prestigious New Year’s Invitational as he tied for eighth at 4-under par 284 in 72 holes played at St. Petersburg Country Club.
Pierce bounced back in a big way from his opening-round 7-over 79 as he fired the lowest round of the tournament by two strokes with his 8-under 64 in Friday’s action to break par heading into the weekend.
Pierce added rounds of 2-over 74 on Saturday and 5-under 67 on Sunday to crack the Top 10 in a tie for eighth place overall in a field of 110 of the best amateur golfers in the United States. LSU’s All-American wrapped up the weekend level with University of Illinois standout Dylan Meyer and David Kleckner of NCAA Division III power Oglethorpe University.
No other player in the field came within Pierce’s low round of 64 during the tournament as three other players managed a best of 6-under 66 in this year’s event. Florida’s Southern’s Jimmy Jones fired a best of 66 this past weekend en route to victory as he outlasted the likes of Virginia’s Jimmy Stanger, Virginia Tech’s Joey Lane and unattached golfer Andrew McCain to take the title following a four-way playoff.
Each finished the 72 holes with matching scores of 9-under par 279 before Jones was crowned champion of this year’s New Year’s Invitational. Pierce finished five shots off the pace on the final leaderboard.
The New Year’s Invitational has been held at St. Petersburg Country Club in Florida since its inaugural event in 1927, and has featured such past champions as past and present PGA TOUR standouts in Brandt Snedeker (2004), J.B. Holmes (2003), Ryuji Imada (1996), Lenny Mattiace (1986) and Gary Koch (1974).
In other action this weekend, former LSU Tiger and emerging PGA TOUR star Smylie Kaufman featured with his fellow tour champions at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Plantation Course at Kapalua in Maui, Hawaii, where he tied for 15th place in a field 33 of the game’s great players. Kaufman finished at 14-under 278 for the championship held at the uncommon par-73 course at Kapalua.
Kaufman, who captured his first career PGA TOUR title at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open back in October, carded rounds of 3-under 70, 4-under 69, 2-under 71 and 5-under 68 to tie for 15th place with Australia native Danny Lee and Sweden’s David Lingmerth. Defending Masters, U.S. Open and British Open champion Jordan Spieth blitzed the field with an eight-shot victory at 30-under par 262 for the weekend.