CARLSBAD, California –– The old adage “golf is hard” proved to be very true Friday afternoon for the LSU men’s golf team as it was unable to get anything going in the right direction in the first round of the NCAA Championships at the OMNI La Costa Resort & Spa North Course.
Scheduled for the favorable late-early wave after earning the No. 7 seed in the competition, the Tigers found themselves not only starting on the difficult back nine, but also playing the round in a gusty West wind. In the end, they faced some of the toughest holes statistically on the golf course.
When all was said and done, the Tigers came in at +15-over par 303 and stands T28 in the team competition.
Nine teams finished the day under par with No. 30 UCLA, playing in the morning wave, leading the competition at 8-under par 280. No 1 Auburn at 4-under par 284 is second with No. 14 Pepperdine third at 285. The first cut line number after one round that LSU will begin the day shooting at is 4-over 292.
Coach Jake Amos reminds everyone it is the first round, better conditions and golf can be ahead for the LSU team.
“We had a really bad stretch for about six holes in our first nine holes that we played,” the second-year Coach said. “We actually did okay on the (front) nine. Nothing good comes when you make doubles and triples. It’s not like us. We haven’t really done that all year. I just told the guys there are two positives. We did it on day one and we did it in the afternoon. So we’ve got to flip our mindset, be positive. We’ve got tons of firepower and get after it (Monday). We can have a bad round and then have a good round, so that’s the goal.”
Three players lead the individual competition after one round at 6-under 66.
La Costa’s North Course on the scorecard listed some 100 yards longer than last year at 7,528 yards showed its teeth. Five-of-the-top seven holes statistically on the opening day that played over par for the entire field of 156 were on the back nine which LSU started on first. Much like for the LSU women last week in the second round in the late afternoon, the wind caused a lot of issues that kept LSU from making a consistent move.
LSU counted on the 245-yard par 3 12th 3-over and the par 4 14th hole a +4 in the play 5, count 4 format of college golf. LSU was also 2-over counting on the par 4 sand and fescue laden 17th hole.
The Tigers were 11-over par after nine holes and looking to get things going on the front nine to conclude their round. LSU came in at 4-over on the front nine holes.
LSU counted 3-over rounds of 75 from junior Jay Mendell and senior Matty Dodd-Berry. Freshman Dan Hayes came in at 4-over 76 and sophomore Arni Sveinsson finished at 5-over 77. Junior Noah McWilliams had a 6-over 78.
Mendell had four birdies on the day, as did McWilliams and Sveinsson posted 1-under on the final nine holes.
LSU will have a chance to get back into competition for the top 15 first-cut which occurs after play on Sunday, returning to the course quickly on Saturday at 7:25 a.m. PT (9:25 a.m. Baton Rouge time), with this round starting on the first tee. There is expected to be very little wind for the first three hours of the Tigers round as they look to fight back in the competition.
LSU will again play with Ole Miss and South Carolina in the morning wave. Live scoring is available at Scoreboard.clippd.com. Live coverage on Babygrande through GolfChannel.com begins at 12:30 p.m. PT.
NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship
Carlsbad, California – OMNI La Costa Resort & Spa North Course
Round 1 Team Results (Par 288)
(NCAA/Scoreboard Rank in Parenthesis)
1 UCLA (No. 30) – 280 -8
2 Auburn (No. 1) – 284 -4
3 Pepperdine (No. 14) – 285 -3
T4 Duke (No. 29) – 286 -2
T4 San Diego (No. 42) – 286 -2
T6 Texas (No. 3) – 287 -1
T6 Arizona (No. 12) – 287 -1
T6 North Carolina (No. 10) – 287 -1
T6 Vanderbilt (No. 11) – 287 -1
T10 Virginia (No. 4) – 288 E
T10 Arkansas (No. 6) – 288 E
T12 Stanford (No. 15) – 291 +3
T12 Florida (No. 2) – 291 +3
T12 Arizona State (No. 13) – 291 +3
T15 Tennessee (No. 16) – 292 +4
T15 Georgia (No. 23) – 292 +4
T15 Oklahoma (No. 18) – 292 +4
T18 Chattanooga – 294 +6
T18 Louisville (No. 13) – 294 +6
T20 Oklahoma State (No. 5) – 295 +7
T20 Arkansas State (No. 39) – 295 +7
T22 Purdue (No. 40) – 296 +8
T22 BYU (No. 22) – 296 +8
24 Southern California (No. 28) – 297 +9
25 Mississippi State (No. 37) – 298 +10
26 Texas A&M (No. 20) – 299 +11
27 Memphis – 301 +13
T28 LSU (No. 7) – 303 +15
T28 Ole Miss (No. 9) – 303 +15
30. Florida State (no. 26) – 307 +19
Individual Top 10 (Par 72)
T1 Ian Maspat, San Diego (No. 66) – 66 -6
T1 Connor Williams, Arizona State (No. 54) – 66 -6
T1 William Jennings, Alabama (No. 6) – 66 -6
4 Baylor Larrabee, UCLA (No. 90) – 67 -5
T5 Luke Potter, Texas (No. 7) – 68 -4
T5 Ben James, Virginia (No. 2) – 68 -4
T5 Filip Jakubcik, Arizona (No. 17) – 68 -4
T5 Malan Potgieter, Louisiana (No. 33) – 68 -4
T9 Six tied at – 69 -3
LSU Scores
T92 Matthew Dodd-Berry – 75 +3
T92 Jay Mendell – 75 +3
T101 Dan Hayes – 76 +4
T116 Arni Sveinsson – 77 +5
T130 Noah McWilliams – 78 +6