BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s golf team dropped its match with SMU 3-1-1 on the final day of the Jackson T. Stephens Cup in Dallas at the Trinity Forest Golf club. The Tigers finished three rounds of stroke play on Tuesday afternoon at 32-under 832.
The fourth seeded Tigers came up short in its second match play event of the 2023 season. LSU fell to Mississippi State 3-1-1 in September at the SEC Match Play event hosted by Jerry Pate.
The Mustangs’ Zach Kingsland 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.
Lance Yates was the lone Tiger to pick up a win in match play. Yates took down Chaz Aurilla handily with a 6 & 5 decision. Yates did not concede a hole all day and was up five by the turn. Yates finished with a par on No. 13 to end his day.
Luke Haskew played all 18 holes on Wednesday and split his match with William Slides. Haskew won the first hole with a birdie and held the lead from then on until Slides’ birdie on No. 14 brought the match back square. Haskew was 3 up twice in his match but remained tied from No. 15 on to split the match.
Freshmen Noah McWilliams and Jay Mendell both dropped their matches one down through eighteen. Mendell trailed for the entirety of his match but kept it close towards the end as he climbed back from four down. McWilliams went back and forth in his match as the lead switched four times. His opponent J. Holland Humphries went on to birdie No. 18 and end the match.
Connor Gaunt was tasked with SMU stroke play leader Zach Kingsland. Kingsland was six up by the turn and completed the match on No. 14 five up.
The Tigers will take a short break before the final tournament of the fall season starting on Monday Oct. 16th. LSU will travel to Little Rock, Ark. for the Everett Buick GMC Classic at the Chenal Country Club.