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Kaufman, Ricard Earn Top Finishes on Pro ToursKaufman, Ricard Earn Top Finishes on Pro Tours

Kaufman, Ricard Earn Top Finishes on Pro Tours

Kaufman, Ricard Earn Top Finishes on Pro Tours

BATON ROUGE – LSU Golf alumnus Smylie Kaufman tied for fourth place at the PGA TOUR’s Sanderson Farms Championship while former teammate Eric Ricard won his first professional event at the Adams Golf Pro Tour’s Houston National Classic to highlight a strong weekend for the program in the pro ranks.

Kaufman is off to a quick start in the PGA TOUR’s 2017-18 season with his sixth career top-10 finish in the event at the Country Club of Jackson while pushing his career earnings to more than $3.4 million.

The former Tiger standout made the cut in his season opener at the Safeway Open earlier this month before tying for fourth place at the Sanderson Farms Championship where he fired a 10-under par 278 for 72 holes. After opening with a 5-under 67 on Thursday, Kaufman added rounds of even-par 72 on Friday and 1-under 71 on Saturday before a 4-under 68 in Sunday’s final round to crack the final Top 5 of the leaderboard.

Ryan Armour won the event by five shots with a winning score of 19-under par 269 with Chesson Hadley followed in second place at 14-under par and Jonathan Randolph trailing in third place at 12-under par.

Kaufman picked up his best PGA TOUR finish since a tie for fifth at the Wells Fargo Championship in May before a tie for 12th place at The PLAYERS Championship the following week. He cashed a check for $177,733 this weekend while tying Scott Strohmeyer and Brian Stuard for fourth place to bring his career earnings to $3,489,655 in just over three seasons as a professional.

Rookie Sam Burns, LSU’s 2017 NCAA Division I Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year, also made the cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship where he made the cut and tied for 43rd place overall at 2-under par ahead of his appearance at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas this week.

Meanwhile, Ricard closed out his first professional win at Houston National Golf Club by defeating Edward Loar in a one-hole playoff for the title at the APT’s Houston National Classic.

Ricard followed his 1-under 71 in the first round on Saturday with a 6-under 66 in the second round on Sunday to force a sudden-death playoff with Loar to decide the title after tying one another atop the leaderboard at 7-under par for the weekend. Zach Cabra finished one shot off the pace in third place at 6-under 138 in 36 holes.