BATON ROUGE – After picking up their first win of the 2016-17 season in record-setting fashion at the inaugural Maui Jim Intercollegiate last weekend, the LSU Tigers moved up three spots in the national rankings to the No. 4-ranked team in the country in the latest Bushnell Golfweek Coaches’ Top 25 poll released Friday.
The Tigers previously received a No. 7 national ranking in the Bushnell Golfweek Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 in August after returning four All-Americans to a squad that competed in eight-team match play at the NCAA Championships for the third-straight season with an appearance in the quarterfinals last spring.
After kicking off their 2016 fall season with a fourth-place finish at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic on Sept. 11, the Tigers scored an emphatic victory at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate last weekend.
The Tigers added a team score of 14-under par 270 in the final round on Sunday to their 270 in first round last Friday and 13-under 271 in the second round on Saturday to finish with a 54-hole total of 41-under par 811.
When the Tigers opened their 2016 spring season by winning the team title at The Prestige at PGA West with a final score of 26-under par 826, they eclipsed their previous school-record score of 21-under par set in the team’s fourth-place finish in the same event in 2015. They raised the bar by another 15 strokes last weekend at Mirabel Golf Club.
By winning their first team championship of the 2016 fall season at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate with their 41-under par 811, the Tigers posted the lowest 54-hole tournament score as a team since at least 1985.
The 2015 NCAA Champions are off to a flying start this fall as they won their first team title of the year and the 26th team championship in 12 seasons under head coach Chuck Winstead after opening the season with an impressive fourth-place finish at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic. LSU’s overall record now stands at 25-3 through its opening two events of 2016-17.
Sophomore All-American Luis Gagne made it a clean sweep for LSU as he took home his first career individual title at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate with a three-round total of 17-under par 196 to finish two shots clear of South Carolina’s Scott Stevens. He closed out the championship with a bogey-free round of 5-under 66 after firing back-to-back career-lows of 6-under 65 in both the first and second rounds.
He claimed his first collegiate championship on Sunday afternoon with a record-setting performance at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate to become LSU’s 18th individual champion during Winstead’s tenure.
Gagne’s winning effort of 17-under par 196 in three rounds played at Mirabel Golf Club not only smashed his previous tournament best of 1-under par posted three times last spring, but also eclipsed the previous best tournament score in a 54-hole event by any LSU Tiger since 1985 by five strokes. Zach Wright at the 2016 Prestige at PGA West and John Peterson at the 2009 Gary Koch Invitational both shot 12-under par in 54 holes of their respective career bests for the program’s previous best.
Bushnell Golfweek Coaches’ Top 25 (Sept. 30)
Team (First-Place Votes), Points, Last Poll
1. Illinois (15), 470, 3
2. Oklahoma State (1), 413, 4
3. Auburn (1), 351, T11
4. LSU, 350, 7
5. Texas (1), 339, 1
6. Clemson, 320, 13
7. Virginia (1), 302, 21
8. Florida, 298, 6
9. Vanderbilt, 283, 5
10. Wake Forest, 265, 14
11. Oklahoma, 262, 10
12. Georgia, 255, 9
13. Southern California, 245, 2
14. Stanford, 241, 8
15. San Diego State, 194, NR
16. Texas A&M, 143, NR
17. Florida State, 123, 18
18. South Carolina, 115, 17
19. Duke, 110, 23
20. North Carolina, 106, NR
21. Baylor, 104, 24
22. Georgia Tech, 88, NR
23. Texas Tech, 80, NR
24. Alabama, 72, 16
25. California, 70, T11