The LSU men’s golf team finished seventh, at 31 strokes over par, out of an 18-team field at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Verda Beach, Fla. on Sunday through Tuesday.
The team finished in front of five teams ranked in the Top 25 Coaches Poll, including North Carolina State, Augusta State, Georgia, North Carolina and Auburn. Coach Greg Jones said the team performed well.
“We have to look at it as the glass being half full,” Jones said. “We beat some pretty good teams and finished up pretty well. We finished ahead of Georgia, who is No. 3 in the country and Augusta State, who is ranked eighth , so those were some quality wins for our team. It was a very strong field. I think we held our own.”
South Carolina won the tournament with a score of 3-under par. Oklahoma State and Florida tied for a distant second place at 24 over par, while tournament host North Florida finished in a tie for eighth at 34 over par.
Southeastern Conference foes Tennessee (6th), Kentucky (t8th), Georgia (10th), Auburn (t14th) and Vanderbilt (18th) also competed at the tournament.
Jones also said the team had plenty of time to practice before its next tournament and is planning to compete well.
“We’re in tournaments to win them,” Jones said.
Jones said the team would like to try to stay out of the hole early in future tournaments.
“[We need to] try to get off to a better start,” Jones said. “We got behind every round and had to play catch-up.”
Jones said he knows where the team needs to start to improve on this performance.
“I think we need to work on everything,” Jones said. “Concentration, focus, short game, making better decisions. As a rule, college golfers play more aggressive and you have to teach them to make better decisions.”
Jones said he would like to see the team perform well in the SEC and national level.
“[Our goal is] to qualify for the postseason,” Jones said. “I’d like to be competitive in the SEC and national tournaments.”
Individually, Andrew Lanahan, who shot 79-72-71 for a total of 222 and 6-over par, finished tied for 18th. Jeff Riemann, who shot 73-76-74 for a total of 223 and 7-over par, tied for 23rd. Garrett Prather, who shot 78-76-75, and Heath West, who shot 75-76-78 for a total of 229 and 13 over par, tied at 45th. Jake Shaw, who shot 88-81-70 for a total of 239 and 23-over par, tied at 78th.
Senior golfer Garrett Prather said he would have liked to have seen the team do better.
“We played pretty well in this tournament,” Prather said. “We beat some good teams, but no one was really happy with their performance. We all thought we could have done better.”
The team is now 74-31-1 and gets a few weeks off before competing in the Cajun Classic March 8-9 at Oakborne Country Club in Lafayette. The Tigers then go to the Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational March 20-21 in Statesboro, Ga.