BATON ROUGE – After sweeping team and individual titles at last year’s Maui Jim Intercollegiate in record-setting fashion, the LSU Men’s Golf team is back to defend both its crowns in the event beginning Friday at Desert Forest Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. Tee times are set to begin at 9:30 a.m. CT.
The tournament moves to Desert Forest Golf Club this weekend with nearby host site Mirabel Golf Club under renovation as the course will play to a par 72 and 7,203 yards for this year’s championship.
This marks the second season in the life of the Maui Jim Intercollegiate as Friday’s first round is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. CT. Saturday’s tee times begin at 9:30 a.m. CT followed by the start of Sunday’s final round at 9 a.m. CT. Pairings are set for the first and second rounds while pairings for the final round will be determined based on the team standings after 36 holes.
LSU Sweeps Inaugural Maui Jim
Fueled by a record-setting tournament score and first collegiate title by All-American Luis Gagne, the Tigers posted a team-record score of their own to take home a five-shot victory at the first Maui Jim Intercollegiate held last fall. LSU posted a winning score of 41-under par 811 at the par-71 Mirabel Golf Club to finish well in front of Baylor (816) in second place and Kent State (828) in third place.
Gagne made it a clean sweep as he captured his first career individual title with a 54-hole score of 17-under par 196 to finish two shots clear at the top of the leaderboard. 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.
That victory sparked a record-setting season in which the Tigers won a program-best six tournament titles between the fall and spring seasons. They followed with wins at the David Toms Intercollegiate in the fall, and The Prestige at PGA West, Aggie Invitational, Tiger Classic and NCAA Baton Rouge Regional in the spring.
Gagne and the Tigers must defend their titles at the unfamiliar Desert Forest Golf Club with Mirabel under renovation. The third-annual event will return to Mirabel Golf Club next fall following this year’s event.
The Field
Georgia State University will play host to the event that features three NCAA Championship qualifiers from a season ago and four teams ranked in the Bushnell Golfweek Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 poll.
The Tigers are the highest-ranked team in a field of 13 teams as they opened up the season ranked No. 7 nationally in the Bushnell Golfweek Coaches’ Preseason Top 25. They were also joined in the ranking by No. 18 Georgia Tech, No. 21 Arizona State and No. 23 Kent State. LSU, Arizona State, Kent State and Lipscomb all appeared at the NCAA Championships last spring.
Rounding out the field this weekend are Augusta State, Gonzaga, Hawaii, Houston, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and Rice. LSU is paired with Arizona State and Georgia Tech in each of the first two rounds as they tee it up on the back nine Friday beginning at 9:55 a.m. CT and the front nine Saturday beginning at 10:10 a.m. CT.
The Lineup
Not only is Gagne back to defend his individual title at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate, but he will be joined by junior Nathan Jeansonne, sophomore Philip Barbaree and freshmen Jacob Bergeron and Trey Winstead as it’s the same lineup that opened the fall season at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic in Rocky Face, Georgia, two weeks ago.
That’s where Jeansonne set the pace with a tie for seventh place overall while firing a 6-under par 210 for 54 holes. Gagne followed in a tie for 15th place at 1-under 215, including a 5-under 67 in the second round.
Bergeron was solid in his collegiate debut at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic as he tied for 24th place at 1-over par while counting all three scores for the squad, including back-to-back even-par 72s in the second and final rounds. Barbaree tied for 41st place, while Winstead tied for 70th place in his collegiate debut. In addition, sophomore Carter Toms is set to play as an individual this weekend at Desert Forest Golf Club.
On Deck
After defending their titles at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate this weekend, the Tigers will return home to the University Club in Baton Rouge in two weeks as they play host to the ninth-annual David Toms Intercollegiate running Oct. 7-8. They will continue the 2017 fall season at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational in Windermere, Florida, from Oct. 22-24 before wrapping up the fall campaign at the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic played at Ka’anapali Golf Club in Lahaina, Hawaii, from Nov. 3-5.