Tiger Golfers Finish Fourth In Puerto Rico; Sveinsson, Kleen Post Top 6 Finishes
Arni Sveinsson finished third at Puerto Rico Classic
BATON ROUGE – For the second straight day the No. 7 LSU men’s golf team posted the co-low round of the day en route to a fourth-place finish in the Puerto Rico Classic at the Grand Reserve Golf Course in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
In addition, both freshman Arni Sveinsson and senior Algot Kleen finished in the top six in the individual competition.
LSU posted an 11-under par round of 277 to finish at 31-under par 833 (282-274-277) eight shots behind winner Purdue at 39-under 825 (274-274-277). Ole Miss was second at 33-under 831 with South Carolina one shot better than LSU in third at 832. LSU was five shots better than Oklahoma in fifth at 26-under 838.
Sveinsson followed up his 66 on Tuesday with a 67 on Wednesday to finish at 13-under par 203 (70-66-67) and in solo third place. Sveinsson finished two shots behind winner Sam Easterbrook of Purdue at 15-under par 201 (67-69-65). One shot back at 14-under par was Kent Hsiao of Purdue with rounds of 66-66-70.
For Sveinsson, who has one win this year, it was his low under par and aggregate score for the season.
Kleen finished in a group tied for sixth at 10-under par 206 on rounds of 69-67-70.
“Overall, I’m very pleased with the fourth-place finish by our team,” said LSU Coach Jake Amos. “After nine holes (on Monday) we were down in the standings playing with just four players, but finished very positively. We had the co-low round of the day the last two days. Arni proved he is still one of the best, if not the best, freshman in the country. Algot had a nice solid tournament and Jay (Mendell) had a good last couple rounds too. There were a lot of positives to take away from this. We were pretty sharp overall and pleased with the finish.”
LSU also counted 2-under 70s by Mendell and Alfons Bondesson. Mendell finished T22 at 5-under par 211.
LSU finished tied for the tournament lead on the par 4 holes at 11-under par and third on par 3 holes at 2-under. LSU tied for the lead with the most pars at 183. The Tigers posted 46 birdies.
Sveinsson led the field in par 4 scoring at 9-under par. Kleen was tied for T3 on those holes at 5-under. Kleen had 15 birdies and Sveinsson 14. Both Mendell and Sveinsson had eagles during the tournaments for LSU.
LSU makes second start of the spring on March 10-11 at the Louisiana Classics at the Oakbourne Country Club in Lafayette.
PUERTO RICO CLASSIC
Grand Reserve Golf Club – Rio Grande, Puerto Rico
Final Team Results – Par 288-864
1 Purdue 274 274 277 825 -39
2 Ole Miss 272 277 282 831 -33
3 South Carolina 277 277 278 832 -32
4 LSU 282 274 277 833 -31
5 Oklahoma 275 282 281 838 -26
6 Georgia 282 274 284 840 -24
7 Virginia 280 283 279 842 -22
8 Tennessee 282 285 278 845 -19
9 Marquette University 285 284 280 849 -15
10 Minnesota 286 288 280 854 -10
11 North Florida 282 295 279 856 -8
12 College of Charleston 289 289 281 859 -5
13 Iowa 294 289 284 867 +3
14 Ohio State 294 297 282 873 +9
15 Wisconsin 297 292 292 881 +17
Individual Top 5 (Par 72-216)
1 Sam Easterbrook Purdue 67 69 65 201 -15
2 Kent Hsiao Purdue 66 66 70 202 -14
3 Arni Sveinsson LSU 70 66 67 203 -13
4 Brock Blais South Carolina 68 68 68 204 -12
5 Cohen Trolio Ole Miss 66 66 73 205 -11
LSU Scores
3 Arni Sveinsson – 70-66-67 – 203 -13
T6 Algot Kleen – 69-67-70 – 206 -10
T22 Jay Mendell – 72-69-70 – 211 -5
T50 Alfons Bondesson – 71-75-70 – 216 E
—- Nicholas Arcement — — – 72-73