LSU men’s golf is just one stroke away from being in fifth place and securing a spot in NCAA Championship heading into the final day of the Baton Rouge Regional.
The Tigers moved up four spots on the leaderboard on Tuesday as they carded 1-over 289.
“I think we took care of the golf ball better today around the greens,” interim LSU head coach Andrew Nelson said. “We didn’t have an issue hitting tee shots out here which has been great. You need to hit good tee shots to play well at this place and we’ve done just that. Around the greens yesterday we were sloppy, but today we did a better job chipping and putting. We’re going to make plenty of birdies out here, we just have to limit the double bogeys.”
Freshman Jay Mendell was the top performing Tiger in round two after Connor Gaunt led the way on day one. Mendell shot a 3-under 69 and moved to fifteenth in the tournament with a total of 1-over 145.
“It feels great,” said Mendell. “I came into the day knowing I was playing well and I was hoping I would have a day where everything came together. I was able to make some putts to make it easy on myself. I started on the back nine and hit some shots close to give myself some easy pars and birdies. On the back nine I had to scramble a little more for par but I stayed in it and knew I just needed to give myself a chance.”
Gaunt hit a 1-over 73 in round two and is tied for second in the tournament with a 3-under 141 overall. He carded four birdies but had a rough finish to the day with two bogies. Lance Yates finished 1-over 73 as well. Luke Haskew was the final scorer for LSU with a 2-over 74.
“Today we shot the second lowest round in the field,” said Nelson. “When you go out and shoot well, you can beat everybody. So, we’re going to have the same mentality tomorrow as we did today. Go out and shoot in the 3 lowest rounds of the day. If we do that, we can go out and beat the teams that we need to. We get to tee off on 10 as the first group off with the teams we’re trying to beat. This is our place and we’re gonna have the same mentality.”
LSU will be looking to climb at least one more spot today to secure its spot in the NCAA Championship. The championship tournament will be on May 24-28 at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
Pos Team R1–R2
1 Virginia 280-290 (-6)
2 Auburn 285-290 (-1)
3 Texas Tech 292-287 (+3)
4 Duke 291-291 (+6)
5 Ohio State 289-294 (+7)
6 LSU 295–289 (+8)
7 Houston 289-296 (+9)
T8 Oregon 292-299 (+15)
T8 S. Carolina 293-298 (+15)
10 Lipscomb 294-298 (+16)
11 Louisville 301-301 (+26)
12 Yale 320-304 (+48)
13 Loyola-Mary 310-315 (+49)
14 UAPB 321-327 (+72)
Pos Individual, School R1–R2
1 Ethan Evans, Duke 71-67 (-6)
T2 Neal Shipley, Ohio State 70-71 (-3)
T2 Connor Gaunt, LSU 68–73 (-3)
T2 Devan Patel, Virginia 67-74 (-3)
T5 Baard Skogen, Texas Tech 71-71 (-2)
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