BATON ROUGE – LSU remained in contention of advancing to match play on Thursday as the Tigers carded a 4-over 284 during the second round of the SEC Championships, putting them just six strokes from being one of the top eight teams who advance to the weekend following stroke play.
LSU is looking to catch Arkansas, who holds the eighth and final spot in order to qualify for match play. The Razorbacks stand at even-par. Six strokes separate teams that hold the Nos. 8-12 place in the 14-team event.
Texas A&M and Alabama lead the event at 12-under, followed by Florida at 10-under, with Vanderbilt and Tennessee each at 6-under.
Played on the Seaside Course at the Sea Island Golf Club, the final 18 holes of stroke play will be held on Friday with match play to begin on Saturday with the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. Sunday’s championship match will be televised on the SEC Network.
Garrett Barber led the way for the Tigers on Thursday, firing a 3-under 67 to move into a tie for seventh place over in the individual standings. Barber surged 28 spots up the leader board with his Thursday round and has a 36-hole total of 3-under 137 (70-67), five strokes back of leader Caleb Surratt of Tennessee.
Starting on the back nine, Barber had birdies at Nos. 15 and 18 to turn at 2-under. Following a bogey at No. 2, Barber had back-to-back birdies on holes Nos. 6 and 7 to finish at 3-under for the round. Barber has played the par 3s to 4-under through two rounds and his eight birdies after 36 holes rank as the ninth-most among all golfers.
Cohen Trolio rebounded to shoot even-par 70 on Thursday after opening with a 74 for the first round. Other counting scores for the Tigers in round two include Luke Haskew at 2-over 72, and Drew Doyle and Connor Gaunt, who both shot rounds of 5-over 75.
LSU will go off the back nine again for the final round on Friday and the Tigers will be paired with Georgia and Auburn. Haskew will get LSU started in round three at 8:20 a.m. tomorrow, followed by Gaunt at 8:30, Doyle at 8:40, Trolio at 8:50 and Barber at 9.
Live scoring for the tournament can be found at www.golfstat.com.