BATON ROUGE – Following their record-setting performance in winning the team title at the 16th-annual Prestige at PGA West by 18 shots, the defending national champion LSU Men’s Golf team has returned to the nation’s Top 20 teams this season at No. 17 by Golfweek and No. 18 by Golfstat in their respective rankings released this week.
The Tigers turned a five-shot deficit to Arizona State at the start of the final round into an 18-shot victory over the Sun Devils in the end as they fired a school-record round of 19-under par 265 and a school-record score of 26-under par 826 in 54 holes played at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West last week.
Leading the way was senior All-American Zach Wright, who scored his second career tournament title with a career-low tournament score of 12-under par 201 to finish two shots clear on the leaderboard.
Wright fired rounds of 3-under 68 in the first round, 5-under 66 in the second round and 4-under 67 in the final round to win his first individual title since the 2013 Louisiana Classics during the spring of his freshman year with the Tigers. He is now the No. 21-ranked player nationally by Golfweek and No. 24-ranked player in the country by Golfstat in their latest individual rankings.
Wright was joined in the Top 10 of the final leaderboard by junior All-American Brandon Pierce as he posted a score of 5-under par 208 in 54 holes for a sixth-place finish and his first Top 10 of the 2015-16 campaign.
Freshman Nathan Jeansonne fired the lowest round by an LSU Tiger in 27 years during The Prestige’s final round with his career-low 7-under 64 to climb into a tie for 19th place on the leaderboard. He is now the second highest-ranked Tiger in the lineup as No. 67 by Golfstat and No. 77 by Golfweek in the current individual player rankings for college golf.
Junior All-American Eric Ricard and freshman Sam Burns both finished at 1-under 212 for the championship, including matching scores of 4-under 67 in the final round, to tie one another for 14th place overall on the final leaderboard in the event. Burns is now ranked among the Top 100 players in college golf this week as the No. 99-ranked player in the country in the updated Golfstat rankings released Tuesday.
The Tigers captured the 24th team championship of the Chuck Winstead era while smashing their previous school-record score in relation to par of 21-under 843 that was actually set one year ago in a fourth-place finish at the 2015 Prestige at PGA West when the tournament was held at the par-72 Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course. They also eclipsed their previous school-record round of 17-under par 263 that was posted for the third and final round at the 2014 SEC Championships in a second-place team finish.
Golfweek Top 25 (as of Feb. 22)
1. Illinois, 69.09
2. Wake Forest, 69.38
3. Florida State, 69.61
4. Auburn, 69.61
5. Florida, 69.74
6. Texas, 69.80
7. Alabama, 70.00
8. North Carolina, 70.10
9. Stanford, 70.14
10. Arizona State, 70.17
11. Southern California, 70.17
12. Clemson, 70.18
13. Vanderbilt, 70.19
14. Oklahoma State, 70.21
15. Oklahoma, 70.22
16. Georgia, 70.30
17. LSU, 70.31
18. Purdue, 70.36
19. California, 70.44
20. Duke, 70.47
21. South Florida, 70.48
22. Penn State, 70.48
23. San Diego State, 70.65
24. Washington, 70.68
25. UCLA, 70.71
Golfstat Top 25 (as of Feb. 23)
1. Illinois
2. Wake Forest
3. Florida State
4. Auburn
5. Arizona State
6. Southern California
7. Stanford
8. Clemson
9. Texas
10. Alabama
11. Georgia
12. Florida
13. Oklahoma State
14. California
15. Vanderbilt
16. Oklahoma
17. Duke
18. LSU
19. North Carolina
20. San Diego State
21. Kentucky
22. Purdue
23. UCLA
24. Penn State
25. Virginia