Men's Golf Scores Five Under-Par Rounds at SEC's; Mendell Individual Leader

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Georgia – First-year LSU men’s golf coach Jake Amos and his No. 7 ranked team didn’t come to this picturesque island just to have a good week of golf, make match play, and see where his team was at heading into NCAA play.

Tuesday, he said his team came to win the stroke play and carry it on it match play.

After Thursday’s second round, he may have just found the winning recipe.

In the second round of the Southeastern Conference men’s golf championship at Sea Island Golf Club, the Tigers topped Wednesday’s four players under par with all five players posting under par to shoot an SEC record-tying 17-under-par round of 263 on the par-70, 7,005-yard layout.

In 2014, LSU became the first school to shoot 17-under on this course.

After starting the day seven shots behind first round leader, No. 2 Auburn, the LSU Tigers counted just two bogeys in the play 5, count 4 format to end the day tied for the lead at 26-under par 534.

Both LSU and Auburn broke the previous 36-hole record of 22-under 538 set by Alabama in 2014.

LSU has three players in the top six of the individual standings – including the leader sophomore Jay Mendell of Lafayette – and four in the top 14. The SEC medalists will be determined in Friday’s final stroke-play round.

In all, a workmanlike day for LSU on the links.

“Everyone is playing really nice,” said coach Amos. “Everyone knows their game, and we got guys playing the golf course a little bit differently, but they’re doing a really good job playing to their strengths. They are just not getting rattled by bad breaks, and they are staying patient, and they are doing everything right.

“We work all year and we talk all year about prepping just for April and May. That’s the only thing that matters, and the whole season’s just about ironing all those little things out, and we’ve done that and now we’re just trying to win the stroke play for the one seed.”

The first four teams have put themselves in really good position with the two teams of Tigers at 26-under (LSU 271-263; Auburn 264-270), opening eight shots on Oklahoma in third at 18-under 542 (274-268) and Texas A&M in fourth at 15-under 545 (271-274).

That puts what appears to be eight teams in position for one of the remaining four match play slots. The eighth spot number is 5-under 555 which is held in a tie for seventh by Mississippi State and South Carolina.

Mendell has played a flawless 36 holes and moved into the lead late in the second round when first round leader Michael Heidelbaugh of Texas A&M could not push the lead further out after his 9-under 61 on Wednesday.

Mendell followed up Wednesday’s 66 with a 5-under 65 today, and through 36 holes has nine birdies and 27 pars for 36 holes. He tied Heidelbaugh for the lead with his fifth birdie of the day on the par-3 17th and then two-putted for par on 18 to grab sole possession of first after Heidelbaugh, playing in the same group with Mendell, settled for bogey after hitting his tee shot in the water on the par-4 hole to fall back to 8-under.

Mendell’s 131 total is the fourth-lowest aggregate score for 36 holes in SEC Championship history.

“Jay’s short game is incredible right now,” said Amos. “He didn’t hit it the best at The Ford (the final regular season event) and he tidied some things up with his coach during the break, and he looks great. I think he’s enjoying the team being in contention. He’s fired up. He’s focused.”

Heidelbaugh is tied for second with Drew Goodman of Oklahoma who has posted back-to-back rounds of 66.

And speaking of focused, senior Algot Kleen, No. 8 in the latest PGA Tour University rankings, didn’t count in the team board in the first round with an even-par 70. Thursday was a day to make up places on the leaderboard as he fired seven birdies in a 6-under round of 64.

The Swedish senior came out and birdied the first, fifth, sixth and eighth holes on the front nine to turn in 4-under 31 and posted three more birdies with only a bogey on the long par-3 12th to equal the lowest SEC single-round score by a Tiger since Smylie Kaufman posted 6-under 64 in the third round at Sea Island in 2014.

“It was fun,” Kleen said after signing his scorecard. “Obviously it was a slow day (Wednesday). Came out today wanting to get some comeback on the course and started off with a birdie. I was just on or around the green all day, and made some good putts. So it was a fun round.”

Kleen, who moved up 24 places on the leaderboard, is now tied for sixth, three shots out of the Mendell lead at 6-under 134 (70-64). Also tied for sixth is junior Matty Dodd-Berry from England, who went 34 holes without a bogey in the championship and for the second-straight round shot a 3-under par 67.

“Matty has been on and off the team (lineup) but he’s been trending at home. We’ve seen it,” said Coach Amos. “We’re just trying to get him the reps and get him sharp to be ready for postseason. I’m glad it worked out, because he’s ready. He’s done a really good job at home, and he’s been in and out of the lineup, but he’s one of our best players, and we know it is just trying to get him in the right form coming into it. So I’m glad he took his chance and he’s playing great.”

LSU’s Alfons Bondesson rolled in two long birdie putts on the final two holes to complete a clean card with three birdies in a 67 and stands in a tie for 14th place at 4-under 136 (69-67). Arni Sveinsson is in a tie for 23rd after back-to-back rounds of 69.

LSU leads the field in par-4 scoring at a 3.81 average, 23-under-par, while the Tigers are second in total birdies with 41.

The Tigers will again be in the opening group Friday with Auburn and Oklahoma (8 a.m. ET, 7 a.m. Baton Rouge time) as the individual competition concludes and the eight teams are decided for match play. Coach Amos wants no let up from his quintet.

“We told our guys (Wednesday night) that we have to stay aggressive, otherwise teams are going to catch you. That’s our thing,” the first-year LSU mentor said. “We’re just going to go try and beat them. We’ve got lots of motivation to be the one seed. No one’s really thinking about us or talking about us. But when regionals come up, we want to be a one seed for that. So we’ve got lots to play for.”

Live scoring can be found at Golfstat.com on the green SEC Championship tab and updates during the round on “X” @LSUmensgolf and @LSUKent.

SEC Men’s Golf Championship
St. Simons Island, Georgia – Sea Island Golf Club
Second Round Team Results – Par 280-560

T1 No. 7 LSU – 271-263 – 534 -26
T1 No. 2 Auburn – 264-270 – 534 -26
3 No. 6 Oklahoma – 274-268 – 542 -18
4 No. 17 Texas A&M – 271-274 – 545 -15
5 Georgia – 276-277 – 553 -7
6 No. 8 Florida – 275-279 – 554 -6
T7 No. 29 Mississippi State – 279-276 – 555 -5
T7 No. 20 South Carolina – 277-278 – 555 -5
T9 No. 15 Alabama – 279-280 – 559 -1
T9 Arkansas – 281-278 – 559 -1
11 No. 3 Texas – 286-275 – 561 +1
12 No. 1 Ole Miss – 281-283 – 564 +4
13 No. 18 Vanderbilt – 292-275 – 567 +7
14 No. 26 Tennessee – 286-285 – 571 +11
15 Missouri – 283-292 – 575 +15
16 Kentucky – 281-295 – 576 +16

Field Cut to Top-8 Teams For Match Play After 54 Holes
(NCAA Scoreboard Rankings For Top 30 Teams)

Individual Top 5 (Par 70-140)
1 Jay Mendell, LSU – 66-65 – 131 (-9)
T2 Michael Heidelbaugh, Texas A&M – 61-71 – 132 (-8)
T2 Drew Goodman, Oklahoma – 66-66 –132 (-8)
T4 Nathan Franks, South Carolina – 65-68 – 133 (-7)
T4 Christiaan Maas, Texas – 66-67 – 133 (-7)

LSU Scores
1 Jay Mendell – 66-65 – 131 (-9)
T6 Algot Kleen – 70-64 – 134 (-6)
T6 Matty Dodd Berry – 67-67 – 134 (-6)
T14 Alfons Bondesson – 69-67 – 136 (-4)
T23 Arni Sveinsson – 69-69 – 138 (-2)