Gaunt, Yates Fire Career Low Rounds on Day 1 at The Stephens Cup
BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s golf team got off to a hot start on Monday morning with a team score of 19-under 269 in the opening round of the Jackson T. Stephens Cup in Dallas at the Trinity Forest Golf Club.
Play was suspended before the completion of round two due to darkness. Round two will resume Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m.
The Tigers carded a 3-under 285 through 13-15 holes in round two to finish the day in 4th place on the leaderboard and just 4-strokes back from second place. The top two team finishers will qualify for the championship match play round that will take place on Wednesday.
The annual Jackson T. Stephens Cup started back in 2021 and is named after the late businessman and Augusta National chairman, Jack Stephens. This year’s event is held on the Championship course at the Trinity Forest Golf Club. The track is a links style course that runs 7,369 yards and registers as a par-72.
LSU’s round one score of 19-under 269 is the lowest score by the team this season. The Tigers previous low was 17-under 271 at the Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff where the Tigers took home a team victory.
Connor Gaunt led the Tigers through round one with a career low round of 8-under 64. Gaunt’s previous low round was back in the 2020-21 season when he fired a 65 in round one of the SEC Championship. Gaunt was six under through his first nine holes that included four birdies and an eagle. The Arkansas native followed on the back nine with a birdie and another eagle, this time on the 630-yard hole No. 5.
Gaunt is currently 2-under in round two to improve to 8-under overall and is currently sitting tied for fifth place. Florida State’s Gray Albright leads all players at 10-under 134 through his first 36 holes. The LSU graduate is the only player with two eagles after day one.
Lance Yates also fired the lowest round of his career in round one with a 5-under 67 in his third event with LSU. Yates previous record was last season at North Florida when he shot a 4-under 68 in the second round of the ASUN Championship.
The two freshmen contributed in the season low round one. Jay Mendell finished his first 18 at 4-under 68 that saw three straight birdies on holes No. 14-16. Noah McWilliams had the hottest start of the day in his collegiate debut. McWilliams started his day with five straight birdies and an eagle two holes after that on the 570-yard par five at No. 16.
Sophomore, Luke Haskew, carded a 1-over 73 in round one and is currently 6-under through 13 holes in round two. Haskew already has five birdies and an eagle in the second round. Haskew is currently the only Tiger under par in round two.
There will be live coverage of the event on the Golf Channel each day. The schedule is set for 3:00-6:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fans can follow along with live scoring at golfstat.com.