BATON ROUGE – The seventh-ranked LSU men’s golf team makes its only Louisiana team appearance starting on Monday in the 40th Louisiana Classics golf tournament at Oakbourne Country Club in Lafayette.
The Louisiana Classics is the 10th-oldest continually competed tournament in the country and will feature 36 holes of play on Monday and the final 18 holes on Tuesday. Tuesday’s final round will be streamed on ESPN+ beginning at 9 a.m.
LSU is making its 19th appearance in the tournament having won three titles (1995, 2010, 2012) with six runner-up finishes. Former Tigers Andrew Loupe (2010), Andrew Presley (2012), Zach right (2013), Myles Lewis (2014) and Sam Burns (2017) have won the individual championship.
LSU was third last year behind three-time defending champion Texas A&M and second in 2022.
This will be a homecoming for LSU sophomore and Lafayette native Jay Mendell. His dad, John, played at Louisiana-Lafayette and is a member at Oakbourne. Jay Mendell finished T7 a year ago (70-68-74 – 212, -4).
For the season, Mendell is averaging 71.44 for 18 rounds in the 2024-25 season, with best of T8 finishes twice this season at The Blessings in Fayetteville, Arkansas and in the Ka’anapali Classic in which he posted a score of -11 for 54 holes (69-68-65).
“This is a special event for many reasons,” said first-year LSU men’s golf coach Jake Amos. “It’s always fun playing in our home state but for Jay and this being at his home course just elevates that experience. It has been on his mind for a lot of the spring and we have spoken about it a few times. It’s important for Jay to enjoy it, but also to stay in his lane and not get distracted with all the things that come with playing at home. The team is extremely motivated to make sure we help get him the trophy at the end of the week.”
Joining the Tigers and Ragin Cajuns in the field are Illinois State, Little Rock, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, Oral Roberts, Rice, Sam Houston, South Alabama, Texas A&M and Texas State.
LSU is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Puerto Rico Classic a few weeks ago in its spring season debut in which it shot a very strong 31-under par for 54 holes. But it has given the team a few weeks to work on things heading into the Classic.
“The main focus during this break between Puerto Rico was to stay competitive,” said Coach Amos. “We have a talented and deep squad and making sure we use that to our advantage. Iron Sharpens Iron. We worked out hard, got our bodies ready for a lot of golf in the spring and we competed every day. It was like a preseason camp to get us ready for a long run into post season.”
Joining Mendell in the team lineup for the Tigers is freshman Arni Sveinsson, with Mendell playing second. Also in the lineup is junior Alfons Bondesson, sophomore Noah McWilliams (a Benton, Louisiana native) and freshman Dylan Kayne.
Matty Dodd-Berry, Luke Haskew and Nick Arcement will play as individual entrants in the field. Haskew is from Baton Rouge and Arcement from Thibodaux.
Sveinsson, a tournament winner this season, is No. 11 in the NCAA Scoreboard by Clippd performance rankings, with a season average of 69.61 with three top three finishes in his first year of college golf.
The 36-hole play on Monday will begin at 8 a.m. and play will be continuous throughout the day on the par 72, 7,142-yard layout. It will be a strong wave for the Tigers paired with the host Ragin Cajuns and Texas A&M off holes 1-3. Live scoring will be available on Scoreboard.clippd.com and the Louisiana Classics tab.