LSU Men’s Golf Tees Off Wednesday in SEC Championship

BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s golf team is set to begin stroke play at the SEC championship on Wednesday morning when it tees off at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga. 

St. Simons Island has hosted the conference championship dating back to 2001. LSU’s sole win at Sea Island came in 2015 when the Tiger earned the program’s 16th SEC Championship. The same team went on to win the national title. LSU is third in all-time SEC team titles with 16. Florida broke the tie for second with its back-to-back team title last year to move to 17 total wins. Georgia leads all schools with 29 wins and the next closest school to LSU is Alabama and Auburn with 5 team wins each. 

Sea Island Golf Club is home to the championship track that is defined as an ocean-side links style course that combines sweeping dines mixed with native grasses, wildflowers, and bunkers. The seaside air creates a difficult golf experience each day with constant gusts and changing winds. 

The 2024 tournament marks the seventh consecutive year combining stroke play and match play to determine conference champions. Stroke play will feature three rounds Wednesday through Friday, with one round each day. The top 8 teams will advance to match play to begin on Saturday and conclude on Sunday. 

The Tigers will return the same starting lineup for the fourth straight event. This group of five has finished in the top five of the last five events. The Tigers finished third at the Louisiana Classics, fourth at the Aggie Invitational, and took home their third win of the season in The Hootie at Bulls Bay. 

Connor Gaunt will make his 11th start through all 11 events this year. Gaunt leads the team with a 71.00 stroke average through 30 rounds. Gaunt has six top-5 finishes and has finished under par in eight events. 

Jay Mendell will make his debut in an SEC Championship on Wednesday. The 5-time SEC freshman of the week has already recorded two wins this year and five top-ten finishes. Mendell holds the third best stroke average on the team at 71.77

Drew Doyle holds the second-best stroke average at 71.67 through 21 rounds this year. Doyle has sharpened his game over the last two months finishing in the top-15 in the last three events. Doyle has started every event for LSU this Spring season. 

Lance Yates is coming off the best finish of his career at The Aggie where his 5-over 221 earned him ninth place. Yates led the Tigers for the first time through his nine events this season. Yates holds a stroke average of 72.81 through 27 rounds. 

Official scoring can be found live on Golfstat.com and through updates on all social media platforms at @lsumensgolf. Sunday’s championship match will be broadcast live on the SEC Network and Saturday’s Semi-final match can be streamed on SEC Network +.