Tigers Second at SEC's, Advance to Match Play; To Face Alabama

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Georgia – The No. 7 ranked LSU men’s golf team completed the first part of its mission here at Sea Island on Friday, qualifying for the eight-team match play quarterfinals of the SEC Championships for the first time since 2022.

The Tigers did not have the same scoring totals of its first two rounds but its three-day total of 29-under-par 811 is the lowest aggregate total LSU has ever shot in an SEC Championship. The previous low was over the same par-70, 7,005-yard layout in 2014, 822.

LSU will face the 15th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 7:20 a.m. CT. Outside the cut line entering the final round, the Crimson Tide moved up two spots and – along with Texas which moved up four spots – tied for seventh at 6-under par 834.

The tie breaker was the cumulative scores of the non-counting participant for the three days in the play 5, count 4 format. Alabama had a one-shot advantage, thus getting the higher seed.

The course appeared to play a little tougher in the early going on Friday with a little more wind than competitors had seen the first two days. LSU still again finished under par for the third-straight day at 3-under 277 and posted rounds of 271-263-277 for its record-breaking school SEC total of 822.

“We got off to a slow start,” LSU Head Coach Jake Amos said. “I think everyone did actually. It wasn’t playing easy. When we got going, we just couldn’t really find the rhythm. We made a couple more unforced errors than we did the last couple of days, but it was definitely tougher. We were just kind of cruising, being professional. We just didn’t quite have our best stuff, but we still had a nice round.”

The individual title race was completely up for grabs until the final hole. LSU’s Jay Mendell went into the final day with a one-shot lead, but struggled on the opening hole with a double bogey. The Lafayette sophomore kept his game together and posted birdies on the par-4 fourth, the par-5 seventh and the par-4 eighth. He turned in even-par 35.

As play moved through the back nine, at one point there were five players tied for first at 9-under par and five more players, including Mendell, tied for sixth at 8-under par. Mendell would get back to even and 9-under par with a birdie on 17 and with a par on the 54th hole posted even par 70 for the day.

In the same threesome, Drew Goodman of Oklahoma and Jackson Koivun of Auburn came to 18 tied for the lead at 11-under par. Goodman made a par but Koivun successfully defended his SEC singles title with a brilliant approach and a short birdie putt to get to 12-under 198, the same score he won the title with last year.

Mendell finished a strong three-days of play in a tie for third at 201 on rounds of 66-65-70 and drew praise from his coach after the round.

“He hadn’t made a bogey in 36 holes, and then it kind of hit him like a sledge hammer straight out of the gate,” said Coach Amos. “But he did a really good job. He was leading earlier in the year and struggled in the last round and I think all these experiences are going to be great for him. He’s still really young, but he’s such a big part of our team that we kind of take that for granted. He’s already won twice in college, too. So, it was a good experience for him. He really was extremely calm after that mistake and that was the coolest part about it.”

Alfons Bondesson had the best round of the day for the Tigers with a 3-under par 67 with five birdies that moved him up five places in the final individual standings to a tie for eighth. Bondesson posted daily totals of 69-67-67.

Algot Kleen with a 70 and Matty Dodd-Berry with 71 both finished up at 6-under 204 to finish T11. Kleen had rounds of 70-64-70 and Dodd-Berry tallied rounds of 67-67-71.

Arni Sveinsson finished at 2-under 208 and T26 after rounds of 69-69-70.

LSU would tie for first with Oklahoma and Georgia in par 5 scoring at 9-under par and an average of 4.70 on those holes. LSU was second behind Auburn in par 4 scoring at 19-under, an average of 3.89. LSU was second in the field with 59 birdies. Mendell and Kleen led the team with 13 each.

Auburn is the No. 1 seed, posting a three-day total of 38-under 802 (264-270-268). After LSU in the No. 2 spot, Texas A&M was the three seed at 23-under 817, followed by Oklahoma at 21-under 819. Florida was the five seed at 16-under 824 with Georgia in sixth at 11-under 829. As mentioned, Alabama won the tiebreaker over Texas for the 7-8 spots.

Among those not making match play was No. 1 Ole Miss and No. 19 Vanderbilt in the Scoreboard by Clippd rankings. The only team outside of the top 17 ranked teams in D1 to make the final SEC eight was Georgia at No. 31.

Coach Amos set his lineup for the match, which will begin at 8:20 a.m. ET (7:20 a.m. CT) with Dodd-Berry out first, followed by Kleen, Sveinsson, Mendell and Bondesson. It is best of five with the first team to win three matches moving on to the next round.

“We’ve got a lot of experience in match play,” said Coach Amos. “Matty has played a ton of match play growing up. So has Algot. We are just experienced with it. We did a match play tournament between our squad earlier in the year to kind of get some reps in. So I think we will be tough to beat.”

Portions of the Saturday semifinals will be streamed on SECN+ with Taylor Zarzour, Steve Melnyk and Peter Burns on the call beginning at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CT). The championship match in its entirety will air on the SEC Network Sunday morning at 8 a.m. ET (7 a.m. CT).

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

SEC Men’s Golf Championship
St. Simons Island, Georgia – Sea Island Golf Course
Final Stroke Play Results (Par 280-840)
Top 8 advance to match play
Top 25 rankings based on NCAA Scoreboard by Clippd
1 No. 2 Auburn – 264-270-268 – 802 -38
2 No. 7 LSU – 271-263-277 – 811 -29
3 No. 17 Texas A&M – 271-274-272 – 817 -23
4 No. 6 Oklahoma — 274-268-277 – 819 -21
5 No. 8 Florida – 275-279-270 – 824 -16
6 Georgia – 276-277-276 – 829 -11
T7 No. 15 Alabama – 279-280-275 – 834 -6
T7 No. 3 Texas – 286-275-273 – 834 -6
9 No. 20 South Carolina – 277-278-281 – 836 -4
10 No. 1 Ole Miss – 281-283-274 – 838 -2
11 Arkansas – 281-278-280 – 839 -1
12 Mississippi State – 279-276-286 – 841 +1
13 No. 18 Vanderbilt – 292-275-277 – 844 +4
14 Tennessee – 286-285-278 – 849 +9
15 Kentucky – 281-295-286 – 862 +22
16 Missouri – 283-292-291 – 866 +26

Individual Top 5 (Par 70-210)
1 Jackson Koivun, Auburn – 67-67-64 – 198 -12
2 Drew Goodman, Oklahoma – 66-66-67 – 199 -11
T3 Phichaksn Maichon, Texas A&M – 69-66-66 – 201 -9
T3 Carson Bacha, Auburn – 69-65-67 – 201 -9
T3 Jay Mendell, LSU – 66-65-70 – 201 -9
T3 Christiaan Maas, Texas – 66-67-68 – 201 -9

LSU Scores
T3 Jay Mendell – 66-65-70 – 201 -9
T8 Alfons Bondesson – 69-67-67 – 203 -7
T11 Algot Kleen – 70-64-70 – 204 -6
T13 Matty Dodd-Berry – 67-67-71 – 205 -6
T26 Arni Sveinsson – 69-69-70 – 208 -2

Pairings for Quarterfinal Match
LSU vs. Alabama – 8:20 a.m. ET (1st hole)
Match 1 – Matty Dodd Berry (LSU) vs. Dominic Clemons
Match 2 – Algot Kleen (LSU) vs. Jonathan Griz
Match 3 – Arni Sveinsson (LSU) vs. Nick Gros
Match 4 – Jay Mendell (LSU) vs. Connor Brown
Match 5 – Alfons Bondesson (LSU) vs. Jones Free