After nine top-five finishes, two victories and a 23rd place notch in the NCAA Championships, the LSU men’s golf team drove high expectations into fall 2013.
Coach Chuck Winstead and his band of Tigers looked to build upon a foundation of golfers that was established in the 2012-13 season.
Going into September, LSU’s returnees had played in a combined 140 events since donning purple and gold, including six athletes that lettered at least two years for the Tigers.
Led by junior Stewart Jolly, LSU started the season strong, finishing in the top five of its first two tournaments.
Jolly followed his season-opening finish of third place at the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic on Sept. 9 with a 6-under par 75 outing a week later at the Golfweek Conference Challenge.
His mid-September performance on the event’s Spirit Hollow Golf Course earned Jolly his second career individual title as a Tiger.
The Birmingham, Ala., native led LSU this fall with a 71.83 single-round scoring average, which is just under par for most courses.
But the Tigers’ fast start met some rough on the back nine of their four-event fall season. LSU placed outside the top five in its last two contests, including a seventh place finish on its home course at the David Toms Intercollegiate.
“We have good players that can perform, but that doesn’t mean we don’t as LSU win tournaments,” said junior Myles Lewis. “We have to go out as a team and perform.”
With a limited number of matches compared to spring’s schedule, the Tigers looked forward to hosting the David Toms Intercollegiate at the University Club in Baton Rouge.
In the event’s fifth year of existence, the tournament is a tradition LSU hopes to continue in recognition of the program’s illustrious history.
“When I became the coach here, I tried to look at all the different areas of the program that we could improve upon,” Winstead said. “Clearly, our relationship and tie with David Toms is something that this program should always do everything it can do to link itself to David because David is first class.”
Senior Andrew Presley shot his best rounds of the fall at the Intercollegiate, finishing tied for third with a 1-under 69 score. Presley won the event in 2012.
The October contest also served as a coming-out party for a few Tigers. Freshman Eric Ricard and junior transfer Ben Taylor both made their LSU debuts at the Intercollegiate.
Taylor joined the Tigers this August after transferring from Nova Southeastern University, the 2012 Division II National Champions. After taking his first strokes as a Tiger, the Leatherhead, England, native gained confidence in LSU’s potential.
As winter arrives and spring’s February season- opener lingers in the near distance, Taylor is optimistic that LSU can help him add a Division I Championship to his hardware.
“To be there representing LSU for the first time and competing amongst a couple of the other guys was pretty special,” Taylor said. “It was a nice intro to what I had coming up ahead of me and I obviously knew the team was very strong and the competition is going to be tough which is great.”