BATON ROUGE – After opening the championship with a 1-over par round of 73 in Friday’s first round, LSU’s senior All-American Zach Wright followed with rounds of 2-over 74 on Saturday and 3-over 75 on Sunday while tying for seventh place at the prestigious 2016 Jones Cup Invitational held at Ocean Forest Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Georgia.
Wright is the third LSU Tiger to crack the Top 10 on the final leaderboard at the Jones Cup Invitational after former NCAA Champion and current PGA TOUR standout John Peterson won the tournament title in 2011 and former All-American and current Web.com Tour member Curtis Thompson tied for sixth place in 2014.
Wright posted a 54-hole score of 6-over par 222 to finish in a tie for seventh place with Florida State standout Joshua Lee in the event and eight shots off the pace set by Texas’ 2016 champion Beau Hossler.
Hossler was the only player in the field 83 competitors to break par in the three rounds played at Ocean Forest Golf Club with a final total of 2-under 214 as he scored a comfortable six-shot victory over South Carolina’s Matthew NeSmith and Houston’s Blair Hamilton in a tie for second place at 4-over 220. Wright also trailed East Tennessee State’s Adrian Meronk, Vanderbilt’s Matthias Schwab and Ohio State’s Will Grimmer in the final standings as the trio tied for fourth place at 5-over par 221 for the championship.
Rounding out the Top 10 of the leaderboard were Texas teammates Gavin Hall and Taylor Funk, South Florida’s Chase Koepka and Clemson’s Stephen Behr, Jr. in a tie for ninth place at 7-over 223 for the weekend.
Wright was not the only Tiger to tee off at Ocean Forest Golf Club this past weekend as LSU freshman Sam Burns was also among the field of 83 of the nation’s top amateurs invited to compete in the event. Burns was tied for 58th place after 54 holes as he posted a three-day total of 22-over par 238 at the par-72 layout, including his best round of the weekend of 3-over 75 in Saturday’s second round.