BATON ROUGE – Fresh off its first win of the season at the David Toms Intercollegiate two weeks ago, the No. 7-ranked LSU Tigers take their momentum to Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windermere, Florida, this week where they join a strong 17-team field at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational beginning Sunday.
The three-day, 54-hole championship begins with Sunday’s opening round followed by the second round Monday and final round Tuesday as Isleworth Golf & Country Club will play to a par 72 and a lengthy 7,544 yards for this year’s tournament.
The Field
The Tigers are the top-ranked team in the field of 17 at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational this week as they check in at No. 7 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index released Thursday. LSU is also ranked at No. 12 nationally in the first Golfstat power rankings of the fall season published on Tuesday.
Six top-25 and 10 top-50 teams in this week’s Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index will compete for the title at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational as seventh-ranked LSU is joined by the likes of No. 8 Auburn, No. 10 Vanderbilt, No. 11 Florida, No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 17 California, No. 20 North Carolina, No. 26 Arizona State, No. 35 North Florida, No. 36 Illinois and No. 45 UCF. Rounding out the field are Arizona, Augusta, North Texas, Purdue, UAB and West Virginia also competing in the event.
LSU tees off alongside Augusta and California in Sunday’s round as they feature in the final wave off the front nine at Isleworth Golf & Country Club beginning at 8:40 a.m. CT and running through 9:20 a.m.
A post shared by LSU Mens Golf Team (@lsumensgolfteam) on Oct 21, 2017 at 7:01am PDT
Last Time Out
The Tigers are fresh off their best performance of the fall season when they lapped the field to defend the crown at the ninth-annual David Toms Intercollegiate earlier this month. Led by co-champions Luis Gagne and Jacob Bergeron, LSU scored a 17-shot victory with a final tally of 11-under par 565 in 36 holes at the University Club in Baton Rouge. That included an 11-under 277 in the clinching second round.
Gagne and Bergeron were brilliant throughout while finishing in a three-way tie for the title at 4-under par as Gagne posted back-to-back 2-under 70s and Bergeron followed his 1-under 71 with a 3-under 69.
All five Tigers in the starting lineup cracked the final Top 15 on their home course at the University Club with freshman Trey Winstead following in a tie for fifth place at 2-under par, sophomore Philip Barbaree earning a tie for eighth place at 1-under par and junior Nathan Jeansonne tying for 15th place at 3-over par on the final leaderboard.
LSU’s victory at the David Toms Intercollegiate marked its first win in three fall events after earning consecutive fourth-place team finishes at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic on Sept. 10 and Maui Jim Intercollegiate on Sept. 24.The Tigers are a cumulative 17-under par in their three finishes this fall.
The Lineup
LSU’s winning lineup from the David Toms Intercollegiate returns for the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational this week as Gagne, Jeansonne, Barbaree, Bergeron and Winstead will all tee it up at Isleworth.
Gagne, a two-time All-American with the Tigers, plays as the No. 73-ranked player in the country in the latest Golfweek rankings with a team-leading 71.88 scoring average to his credit this season. Bergeron follows the junior from Orlando, Florida, with a No. 78 individual ranking by Golfweek with a 72.00 scoring average in three tournament appearances as a freshman.
Jeansonne, who opened the season by tying for seventh place as the top Tiger at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic, scores an average of 72.13 strokes per round with one Top 10 and two Top 20s this fall. Barbaree is coming off back-to-back eighth-place individual finishes to drop his scoring average to 72.25, while Winstead also owns a pair of top-10 finishes and rounds out the lineup with a 73.38 scoring average on the year.
#LSU‘s winning lineup from the @davidtomsgolf Intercollegiate returns at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational this week! #GeauxLow pic.twitter.com/nV0oQGBv2m
— LSU Men’s Golf (@LSUMensGolf) October 21, 2017
On Deck
After teeing it up at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational this week, the Tigers wrap up their 2017 fall season with a trip to Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, in two weeks when they compete at the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic that will run Nov. 3-5 at Ka’anapali Golf Club. Play resumes in the spring with the Sea Best Invitational being held Feb. 5-6 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.