BATON ROUGE – The No. 4 LSU men’s golf team, off two back-to-back winning performances, looks to keep the spring momentum going Sunday as they begin play at the Calusa Cup in Naples, Florida.
The event, hosted by the University of Iowa, will be held at the Calusa Pines Golf Club, which will play at par 72 and 7,320 yards.
The Tigers moved up two more spots in the NCAA Scoreboard by Clippd performance rankings to No. 4 on Wednesday after the team’s back-to-back wins in the Louisiana Classics in Lafayette and the Pauma Valley tournament in California.
LSU is joined in the selected field along with Iowa and No. 8 Virginia, No. 10 UCLA, No. 12 Florida, No. 37 Louisville, No. 38 Purdue, No. 46 Wake Forest and Miami (Ohio).
LSU’s lineup is the same one that won the Pauma Classic with senior Algot Kleen, freshman Arni Sveinsson, sophomore Jay Mendell, junior Alfons Bondesson and sophomore Noah McWilliams.
Sveinsson is the low average of 69.63, just ahead of Kleen at 69.81. Bondesson is at 71.00 with Mendell at 71.21 and McWilliams 71.93.
Through eight events, the Tigers are averaging as a team 280.04. Only twice in the past 15 seasons has an LSU men’s golf team averaged lower with just two years of a 284 and change average in 2022 (284.06) and 2017 (284.45).
Kleen, from Sweden, is No. 5 in the NCAA individual rankings after a second-place performance at Puma Valley. Kleen is now ninth in the PGA Tour University rankings and at No. 25 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
Sveinsson, who hails from Iceland, is ranked 12th in the Scoreboard performance rankings. Lafayette native Mendell, who was third in the Pauma Valley event, continued his move inside the top 100 in the Scoreboard rankings, moving to No. 85 entering the Calusa Cup.
This will be LSU’s first appearance in the event. Calusa Pines features outstanding vistas generated by sweeping ridges that influences ten golf holes. The landforms are so soft, and flowing that they blend in well enough to appear natural and unique.
The teams will be off in tee times beginning at 11 a.m. CT both Sunday and Monday before an early morning start time for the final round on Tuesday.
Live scoring for the event will be on Golfstat.com, on the green Calusa Cup tab.