After a three month layoff, the LSU men’s golf team will open its 2015-2016 season Friday at the three-day 27th annual Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic in Rocky Face, Georgia.
The Tigers are facing stiff competition with seven of the 15-team field having participated in the NCAA Championships in June. LSU comes in as the highest ranked team after receiving their highest ranking in school history, No. 2, in the Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Preseason poll.
The Tigers return three members from their Southeastern Conference and NCAA-title-winning lineup.
The events marks the Tigers first after boasting the national championship, the school’s first since 1955. Coach Chuck Winstead said the field’s depth will help the team develop and serves as a good starting point.
“It’s good to play challenging fields and let guys get a sense of where we are,” Winstead said. “Our season last so long, we have to look at this as where ever we start we just want to keep improving.”
The defending champions return to Rocky Face after placing sixth in the same event a year ago.
LSU’s lineup for the opening tournament is led by the team’s lone senior Zach Wright and junior Eric Ricard, two of the Tigers returning All-Americans. They will be joined by sophomore Blake Caldwell and freshmen Luis Gagne and Sam Burns.
Both Wright and Ricard were key components of the title winning teams a year ago.
Wright swept his matches at the NCAA championships with a perfect 3-0 record in match play and was named a PING Honorable Mention All-American and Second-Team All-SEC in his third season. He tied for sixth place, the highest of any LSU player, at the SEC Championships, helping the Tigers win their 16th conference title in program history. He finished last season as Golfstat’s No.44 player nationally.
Ricard remained unbeaten in the NCAA championships as well posting a 2-0-1 record in his three matches and was rewarded for his play last season as a PING Honorable Mention All-American and Second-Team All-SEC. He ended his sophomore season as Golfweek’s No. 61 golfer.
Caldwell played sparingly his freshman year participating in four tournaments. But his best finish was when he tied for 29th at the Golfweek Conference Challenge.
The opening tournament will be the collegiate debuts for Burns and Gagne, both joining the Tigers as two of the nation’s top recruits. Burns comes in as the No. 1 recruit while Gagne was among the top-20 recruits nationally.
Wright and Ricard both said playing quality competition early on will only be a benefit to the Tigers as they begin the year.
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” Wright said. “You see how you stack up against other people. We’ve practice hard and we’ll see how we end up, I think we’re ready.”