BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s golf team combined for a 32-under 832 to finish in fourth place after three rounds of stroke play at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup. The Tigers will face third-seed Southern Methodist on Wednesday in match play for the final day of the event held at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas.
Florida State finished in first as a team at 51-under 813 and Arizona followed with a 46-under 818. The two will compete in match play tomorrow to determine the team championship. Arizona’s Tiger Christensen won the individual honors with a 19-under 197. Christensen was the only player to stay under the 200 mark and recorded just one bogey through all three rounds.
Round two was resumed on Tuesday morning after play was stopped Monday night due to darkness.
Sophomore Luke Haskew tied his career low in the morning when he finished round two at 9-under 63. The Baton Rouge native matched his low of 63 last season in round one at the Mossy Oak Collegiate. Haskew went on to shoot 1-over 73 in the final round to finish 7-under 209 and 16th as an individual.
Connor Gaunt was the only other Tiger to finish under par in round two. Gaunt was 2-under 70 and recorded four birdies in his bogey free back nine. Gaunt went on to shoot a 3-under 69 in round three to finish tied for third overall at 13-under 203.
Freshman Jay Mendell finished tied for 24th at 4-under 212 after a 1-under 71 in his final round. Mendell’s round one score of 4-under 68 is the lowest of his young career. Mendell has traveled with Tigers for all four tournaments this season.
Noah McWilliams contributed in his final round at 1-under 71 that saw the Tigers’ only eagle of the day on the 539-yard par five hole No. 10. LSU’s McWilliams and Gaunt are two of the four competitors to record two eagles at the event. LSU had the most of any team with five total, Haskew had the other.
Lance Yates started off bogey free in his completion of round two to end 1-over 73. Yates combined for 2-under 214 through all three rounds to finish in 30th. McWilliams followed at 1-under 215 and tied for 31st.
LSU is set to take on SMU in a match play format of 18 holes starting at 11:20 on Wednesday. The Mustangs are led by Zach Kingsland who finished tied for tenth at 10-under 206 in stroke play. The other four SMU golfers all finished in the top ten. Chaz Aurilla in 14th at 9-under 207, Matthew Foster in 15th at 8-under 208, J. Holland Humphries tied for 17th at 6-under, and William Sides tied for 24th at 4-under 212.
There will be live coverage of the event on the Golf Channel 3:00-6:00 p.m. CT on Wednesday. Fans can follow along with live scoring at golfstat.com.
Match Play Pairings
11:20AM Noah McWilliams vs. J Holland Humphries
11:30AM Connor Gaunt vs. Zach Kingsland
11:40AM Lance Yates vs. Chaz Aurilla
11:50AM Luke Haskew vs. William Slides
12:00PM Jay Mendell vs. Matthew Foster