After finishing ahead of two top-10 conference teams in the Feb. 7 tournament, the LSU men’s golf team travels to Gainesville, Fla., this weekend for the SunTrust Gator Invitational.
The Tigers placed sixth at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship in Jacksonville, Fla., finishing in front of No. 4 Florida and No. 8 Tennessee.
“We played against a tough field on a good golf course and played very well,” LSU coach Chuck Winstead said about last week’s event.
Junior Chris Wells said the University of Florida Golf Course could present difficulty for the players this weekend.
“The trickiest part of the course is the narrow driving lanes and trees on both sides of the fairway,” Wells said.
Senior Andrew Lanahan said Winstead had each member of the team hit 100 putts from about 3 feet this week at practice.
“We tried to simulate the tournament situation and continued to challenge each other at practice,” Lanahan said. “We’ve treated every putt like it was our last one of the tournament.”
The Tigers begin play 7 a.m. Saturday morning and end Sunday afternoon. The University of Florida won last year’s event by 8 strokes. LSU finished eighth.
The Tigers played through high winds and rain Feb. 5 at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship. The team finished 49 over par at the event. The team finished 26 over par the year before.
According to Weather.com mostly sunny skies and light winds are predicted in Gainesville this weekend.
“We’ve had a great week of practice,” Lanahan said. “Now all we have to do is stay calm, relax and play like we know we can.”
Contact Jay St. Pierre at [email protected]