BATON ROUGE – Connor Gaunt moved into a tie for second place on his final hole of the day as his 15-foot birdie putt evoked cheers from the home crowd surrounding the 18th green. Gaunt fired a 4-under 68 in round one to lead the Tigers on Monday. As a team, LSU finished round one of the NCAA Regional at 7-over 295 and tied for ninth place at the University Club in Baton Rouge on Monday.
“Seeing everybody back there was something that I worked hard for and I really wanted that putt to go in,” said Gaunt. “The hole was looking like a five gallon bucket so I was excited to put it in.”
The Tigers will have two rounds left to play as they look to climb into the top five before the end of the day on Wednesday. The top five teams and one individual not on that team will advance to play in the NCAA Championship on May 24-28 at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. LSU is currently 4-strokes away from 5th place.
“I feel good about the team moving forward because we finished well and gave ourselves a chance to be right in this thing,” said interim head coach Andrew Nelson. “We’re four shots out of 5th place and all you need is to be top five. You never want to play for 5th but we’re only four shots away from where we need to be.”
Virginia leads the field after an 8-under 280 in the opening round led by the individual leader, Deven Patel. No Virginia golfer finished over par in round one. Patel fired a 5-under 67 and holds a one-stroke lead over Gaunt and Wolfgang Glawe who are both 4-under 68. Six players are tied for 4th at 2-under 70, including the SEC freshman and golfer of the year, Jackson Koivun, and the 2024 Masters low amateur, Neal Shipley.
“I’m proud of Connor and I know he was nervous going into this because it’s a big event for him,” added Nelson. “It’s his last time playing at home and one of his only times playing at home in front of fans and family. He wants to end his career here well and lead this team to a national championship, so I’m proud of him and happy for him. Going out and shooting four under par and making six birdies on a hard day shows what great of a job he did.”
Gaunt’s 4-under 68 featured three birdies on the front and three on the back. The graduate golfer only had two bogeys on the day. Gaunt birdied three of his last four down the stretch to drop to 4-under and move into a tie for second.
“I haven’t hit the ball really well in the last month or so, and I’ve been working hard so it’s good to see that pay off, ” said Gaunt. “I striped it today, so it was easy to get into the hole locations and make some putts.”
Luke Haskew earned the next best score for the Tigers with a 3-over 75. Haskew birdied twice and put together a good round on his home course. The Baton Rouge native is a graduate of University High.
Alex Price and Jay Mendell both finished at 4-over 76 as the final two contributing scores for LSU. Price started the day with a double bogey on No. 1 but tallied four birdies on the front to get to 2-under 34 at the turn. Price was 6-over 42 on the back to end the day 4-over 76. Mendell had three birdies in round one and was 2-over heading into the final hole. Mendell double bogeyed the difficult 458-yard par four at No. 18 to end the day.
LSU will tee off in round two on Tuesday starting as early as 9:25 in the morning. Live stats can be found at Golfstat.com.
Pos Team R1
1 Virginia 280 -8
2 Auburn 285 -3
T3 Ohio State 289 +1
T3 Houston 289 +1
5 Duke 291 +3
T6 Texas Tech 292 +4
T6 Oregon 292 +4
8 South Carolina 293 +5
9 Lipscomb 294 +6
10 LSU 295 +7
11 Louisville 301 +13
12 Loyola Maryland 310 +22
13 Yale 320 +32
14 UAPB 321 +33
Pos Individual Team R1
1 Deven Patel Virginia 67 -5
T2 Wolfgang Glawe Houston 68 -4
T2 Connor Gaunt LSU 68 -4
T4 Josiah Gilbert Auburn 70 -2
T4 Calum Scott Texas Tech 70 -2
T4 Bryan Lee Virginia 70 -2
T4 Jackson Koivun Auburn 70 -2
T4 Neal Shipley Ohio State 70 -2