The LSU men’s golf team will take part in one of the spring’s premier collegiate golf events Sunday when it heads east to Ponte Vedra, Fla., for the John Hayt Invitational at Sawgrass Country Club.LSU coach Chuck Winstead said he is looking forward to the challenges offered by the Sawgrass Country Club.”The event, because of the weather, the time of year and the golf course is a premier event,” Winstead said. “It exposes any weakness you have in your game. It’ll be a challenge; no doubt about it. But it’ll be a challenge for the entire field.”The Tigers could find success if they look back to their performance at the John Hayt Invitational last year. LSU won the team title, and junior John Peterson won the individual title.Recent play, however, suggests otherwise. LSU fell flat on its face in the first 36 holes of the spring season last weekend at the Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., before rallying in the final 18 holes to collect a respectable fifth-place finish.”Is it understandable to have a round that kind of gets away from you? Well it’s understandable only to people that don’t want to be the best,” Winstead said. “We want to be the best, so I didn’t expect the team to play that way at all. I think we’re better than that.”Winstead said Sawgrass Country Club offers a challenge to every facet of the game, so the players didn’t spend time on any particular facet of their games in preparation for the course. Instead, players have been focusing on individual parts of their games that need work.”With John Peterson, I’d say it’s trying to get his iron play back in the right direction. With Sang Yi, it’s been working more on his driving and his putting,” Winstead said. “Andrew Loupe is playing well right now, but that doesn’t mean he can’t sharpen up his accuracy.”Loupe nearly won the Gator Invitational last weekend. The Baton Rouge native finished the tournament in second place, one stroke off the lead.Loupe fared well in the John Hayt Invitational last season as well, finishing two strokes off Peterson’s pace to finish in a tie for second place at the tournament.The lower half of the lineup has been the lynchpin for LSU’s success this season. In the lone tournament win for the Tigers this season, the David Toms Intercollegiate in Baton Rouge, four of the five golfers competing for a team score finished in the top-40 individual standings.But that has been unfamiliar territory for the Tigers this season. Outside of the David Toms Intercollegiate, only junior Clayton Rotz has finished a tournament in the top-40 this season.The par-72, 6,895-yard Sawgrass Country Club features water along 14 of the 18 holes. The course gained notoriety when it was featured as the host of the PGA Tournament Players Championship from 1977-81.–Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]