FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas – The nationally-ranked LSU golf teams are together in a most unique tournament that begins here Monday with the start of The Blessings Collegiate Invitational presented by Tyson Foods.
Portions of the rounds, scheduled for Monday through Wednesday, will be televised live on The Golf Channel.
The LSU women enter their second event of the season ranked No. 13 in the coaches’ poll, while the LSU men, two tournaments in, are No. 15 in their coaches’ poll.
The 10 schools represented here will all have their men’s and women’s teams on site playing in the event. Joining the host Razorbacks (women No. 8; men No. 23) and the Tigers are: BYU, Kansas State, Kent State, Louisville, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ohio State and Virginia Tech.
There will be a women’s event for team and individual honors, a men’s event for team and individual honors, as well as a combined team championship and a best-ball championship combining the squads from each school.
What is extremely different is unlike most college tournaments when players compete usually in threesomes with a team’s players in five separate groups, all five players on the team will play the same hole together. It’s still the normal play-5, count-4 setup but it is a most different situation.
The Blessings is the home course of the Razorbacks and was originally designed by architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr. with a redesign recently completed by noted architect Kyle Phillips. The Blessings hosted the 2012 SEC Women’s Championship, the 2013 NCAA Men’s Regional and the 2019 NCAA Women’s and Men’s Championships.
It will play long at 7.737 yards for the men and 6,501 yards for the women. Both the men and women will play it at par 72.
The highlight of the men’s first two events was a win in the Visit Knoxville Collegiate with transfer Algot Kleen, who is No. 9 in the PGAU rankings, getting the win in Knoxville.
Kleen will lead off the lineup for the men’s team along with freshman Arni Sveinsson, transfer Matthew Dodd-Berry, Louisiana sophomore Jay Mendell and Baton Rouge junior Luke Haskew. It will be Haskew’s season debut for the Tigers, while the other four players have played in both events.
“It’s strange because normally you kind of bounce around or stay with one guy for the whole time but now, it’s going to be fun as a coach because you can see where everyone’s game is at,” said men’s coach Jake Amos. “The big thing is just having really good team chemistry. Making sure there’s no bad energy from anyone no matter how good or bad someone is playing, and managing the emotions themselves.
“Obviously, we came out really hot, and all the guys were doing everything right. We won and I think it kind of showed that, if we do all the right things, we’re a really good team,” the first-year coach said. “Then, we had the complete opposite happen and we got a little bit sloppy in the second tournament. It was humbling for sure. We did have some sickness, which is not an excuse, but it didn’t help either. We basically went from doing everything right to doing everything wrong. Now, we’ve seen both and we can get back to what we need to do.”
The LSU women was a strong second in a much tougher scoring 2024 version of the Cougar Classic in Charleston, one shot behind winner Auburn. Freshman Rocio Tejedo in her first collegiate tournament finished fourth.
“We are looking forward to our second event of the fall,” said LSU women’s coach Garrett Runion. “This event is unique in that we play in fivesomes with our whole team together in one group. It is a little different but as a coach that I will get to see every shot from every one of my players for a whole tournament, something I don’t get to do in normal tournaments.
“It’s also nice that it will be televised on the Golf Channel. We’ve had the good fortune of playing on live TV several times the last few years and it will be good to get our younger players used to playing in front of the cameras and more comfortable once postseason comes around. We had a good week of practice and looking forward to competing again. “
The women’s lineup will feature Tejedo, senior Elsa Svensson, senior Aine Donegan, sophomore Jordan Fischer and freshman Josefin Widal. Donegan last month represented her home country of Ireland as she helped GB&I win back the Curtis Cup. Fischer, at the same time as the Cougar Classic, was in New Orleans at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, capturing the individual title in the Green Wave Invitational.
Arkansas women have won three of the four BCI team titles with Mississippi State winning in 2022. The Arkansas men won team titles in 2021 and 2023 with Alabama winning the inaugural men’s title and Texas A&M winning in 2022.
LSU will be one of the featured teams in Tuesday’s second round as they have early-late tee times the first two days. The LSU women will be off the 10th tee at 9:45 a.m. Monday with the Tiger men to follow at 10:15 a.m.
Coverage on the Golf Channel is set for each day of the 54-hole event from 3:30-6:30 p.m. CT. With the teams playing as a group, the network has asked for identifying marks for the players. The LSU women will wear the same team outfits each day but the ladies will be wearing a different hat or visor to make identification easier.
The LSU men will wear some different LSU shirt combinations each day to make it easier for the announcers and viewers to keep up.
Live scoring for the event will be the Scoreboard/Clippd site with separate sites for both the men’s and women’s events. Updates during the day on the LSU men’s and women’s golf “X” and Facebook sites.