LSU golf coach Chuck Winstead let out a sly chuckle after his team won its second tournament in five days Sunday at the LSU Invitational.
“One stroke or 10, I guess a win is a win,” Winstead said.
The No. 9 Tigers, hosting a tournament on the University Club’s new layout for the first time, defeated Tennessee-Chattanooga by one shot with a team score of 22-over-par 886 after a tense back nine littered with high scores and key bogey saves.
Midway through the back nine, the Tigers held a six-shot advantage against a fading No. 12 Iowa, but a series of crucial mistakes — often involving water hazards — brought the clubhouse leader Chattanooga, at 23-over par, back into the mix.
“We had a two-touchdown advantage and threw two pick-sixes, to use some football terms,” Winstead said.
With only senior All-Americans John Peterson and Andrew Loupe left on the course for LSU, the Tigers held a slim three-shot advantage on Chattanooga, but each had to face the difficult par-4 18th hole. The hole was playing into the wind, with a back left pin and had a stroke average of more than 1-over par on Sunday.
“I’d put the 18th hole with the wind and pin location up against any 18th hole in the country the way it was playing [Sunday],” Winstead said. “It was playing more like a par 5 all day.”
Loupe saved a bogey after hitting into the sand on the 18th, while Peterson birdied the par-3 16th and two-putted for the clinching bogey on the final hole just minutes later.
“If there’s two guys who you want on the course with the tournament on the line, it’s Andrew and John,” Winstead said. “They came through with some big shots late for us.”
Chattanooga junior Stephan Jaeger ran away with the individual title, posting the only total under-par score with a 7-under 209.
Peterson finished in a tie for third with a 54-hole total of 1-over 217 while Loupe used a 2-over three round total of 218 to place fifth.
Six Tigers finished in the top 20, though two of them, Andrew Presley and Clayton Rotz, were competing only as individuals.
Other coaches labeled the new University Club with terms like “first-class” and “championship level.”
“[University Club] is one of the three hardest golf courses we’ve played in the nine years I’ve been coaching,” said Chattanooga coach Mark Guhne. “For what LSU is trying to build with one of the top programs in the country, you couldn’t ask for a better facility.”
Meanwhile, the LSU women’s golf team did not fare as well during the weekend, as it struggled to a 12th-place finish and a team score of 16-over 880 at the three-day Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic on the University of Georgia golf course.
The tournament was played with the best-ball format, which uses the four best scores on each hole from each team and is a rare format for formal competition.
The No. 6 Lady Tigers bounced back from a disappointing first two days by carding a team score of 7-under 281 in Sunday’s final round.
 
Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected]