MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – With the spring season well underway following its victory at The Prestige at PGA West and third-place finish at the Louisiana Classics, No. 5-ranked LSU continues its march toward postseason play at the 16th-annual General Hackler Championship beginning Saturday at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club.
This marks LSU’s first ever appearance at the General Hackler Championship hosted by Coastal Carolina as the two-day, 54-hole tournament runs Saturday and Sunday at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club. The course is set to play to a par 72 and 7,233 yards for the duration of the championship.
The Tigers are riding a wave of momentum to Myrtle Beach after defending their team title at The Prestige at PGA West in California on Feb. 22 before taking third at the Louisiana Classics in Lafayette on Feb. 28.
They arrive at the General Hackler Championship ranked as high as No. 5 nationally in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index released Wednesday. LSU has also cracked the Top 10 nationally as the No. 8 team in the latest Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Top 25 poll released Friday and the No. 9 team in the latest Golfstat power rankings published Tuesday.
The Field
While the 2015 NCAA Champions headline the field of 15 teams teeing it up in Myrtle Beach this weekend, they will be joined by three top-20 and eight top-50 teams in the latest Golfweek power rankings.
Following LSU as the No. 5-ranked team in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index are No. 8-ranked Virginia, No. 12-ranked Wake Forest and No. 17-ranked Kent State as the favorites to take home the team title on Sunday. Other top-50 teams set to compete include No. 35 South Carolina, No. 36 North Florida, No. 42 Iowa State, No. 44 Kentucky and No. 45 NC State, while Charleston Southern, East Carolina, East Tennessee State, South Alabama and Virginia Tech along with host Coastal Carolina round out the field.
The Tigers are paired with Coastal Carolina and Wake Forest in Saturday’s tournament opener as they will tee off from holes Nos. 1-3 in the opening round with a shotgun start set for 7:30 a.m. CT. Saturday will feature continuous play as the second round immediately follows completion of the first. Tee times for Sunday’s final round will begin from holes No. 1 and No. 10 at 7:30 a.m.
Last Year
South Carolina is the defending team champion at the General Hackler Championship after scoring a seven-shot victory over Virginia in the 15th-annual event last spring with a winning score of 23-under par 841. Each of the top-seven teams in the final standings a year ago broke par for 54 holes as Virginia followed in second place at 16-under par 848 and Kent State took third place at 12-under par 852.
South Carolina’s Matthew NeSmith and Virginia’s Jimmy Stanger shared medalist honors in 2016 while matching one another at 9-under 207. Charleston Southern’s Austin James was third individually at 7-under 209.
Last Time Out
The Tigers are coming off a third-place team finish in their last outing at the Louisiana Classics where they broke par at 1-under par 863 in 54 holes played at Oakbourne Country Club. They are no strangers to Kent State as the Golden Flashes were crowned champions in Lafayette with a winning score of 21-under 843 to finish 19 shots ahead of runner-up Texas A&M.
While coming up short in the team race, LSU’s sophomore All-American and National Player of the Year candidate Sam Burns captured his third tournament title of the campaign when he overcame a two-shot deficit at the start of the final round to overtake Kent State’s Ian Holt by one shot with a winning 10-under par 206.
It marked Burns’ third win of the season after also claiming co-medalist honors at the David Toms Intercollegiate and a historic victory at the Sun Bowl Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic in the fall.
Burns is now the No. 1-ranked player in all of college golf for the first time this season after climbing to the top spot in the Golfweek individual player rankings on Wednesday night. He followed by being ranked No. 1 in the updated Arnold Palmer Cup Ranking released Thursday by the Golf Coaches Association of America as the top American in college golf.
Burns has performed like a Ben Hogan Award and Haskins Award candidate throughout his sophomore season while also finishing in the Top 10 in each of his eight tournament appearances for the 2016-17 season.
Burns is a cumulative 60-under par in his eight appearances this season and leads the Tigers with a 69.00 scoring average in 24 competitive rounds played in 2016-17 with 22 of his rounds being played at par or better. As a sophomore, Burns is on pace to smash his 72.42 scoring average from his rookie season in 2015-16 and Brandon Pierce‘s single-season scoring record for the Tigers of 71.16 from the 2014-15 campaign.
The Lineup
Burns will again headline LSU’s lineup teeing it up at the General Hackler Championship this weekend as he will joined by Pierce, senior Eric Ricard, fellow sophomore Luis Gagne and freshman Philip Barbaree.
Gagne and Barbaree both joined Burns in the Top 10 of the leaderboard at the Louisiana Classics as they tied one another for 10th place overall with matching scores of 1-over par 217. Gagne picked up the fourth top-10 finish in his eight previous starts this season, while Barbaree earned his first career Top 10 in just his second collegiate start after enrolling at LSU in January for the start of the spring semester. Gagne follows Burns with a 71.00 scoring average in his 24 rounds played this season, while Barbaree averages 72.83 strokes per round in his two starts.
Ricard will make his eighth start of the campaign at the General Hackler Championship as he arrives in Myrtle Beach with a 72.90 scoring average in his 21 rounds played this season. Pierce is set to make his spring debut for the Tigers after earning top-10 finishes in three of his five appearances in the fall while finishing with a 71.00 scoring average in 15 rounds played.
Up Next
The Tigers will follow their appearance at the General Hackler Championship with a trip to Palm City, Florida, next weekend where they will tee it up at the Valspar Collegiate Invitational running March 19-21 at Floridian Golf Club. They then wrap up their regular season April 1-2 with their annual trip to Bryan, Texas, where they are set to compete at the Aggie Invitational being held at Traditions Golf Club.
The championship season kicks off April 21-24 at the 2017 SEC Men’s Golf Championships as the tournament returns for another season to the Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course in St. Simons Island, Georgia.