TIGER RAG NEWS SERVICES
Written By Kent Lowe, LSU Sports Information
“Tigers never quit.”
That was part of LSU men’s golf coach Jake Amos’ message to his team prior to what appeared to be the final round of the season when LSU teed off Sunday in the third round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship at the OMNI La Costa Resort & Spa course in Carlsbad, California.
The Tigers were tied for 27th, 20-over par after two rounds, and 17 shots behind three-over cut-off point for 54 holes.
What happened by the time early evening fell Sunday, west coast time, was one of the most improbable comebacks by an LSU team in several years. The Tigers posted the best round of the day by nine shots, posting an 18-under-par 270 to move up a whopping 15 places into a tie for 12th at 2-over 866 and earning a spot in the final round of the championships on Monday afternoon.
The most stunned team had to be Pepperdine, which since early afternoon had stood in 15th place at 4-over par for 54 holes. The Waves would finish in 16th place as LSU tied with San Diego, Tennessee and Stanford for 12th.
The amazing total of 18-under topped the school record mark for an NCAA Championship of 11-under par 277 in 2017 in round two at Sugar Grove, Illinois, at the Rich Harvest Farms Golf Club.
Leading the charge was Manchester, England, freshman Dan Hayes, who rallied after hitting in the water on his ninth hole of the day – the par-5 18th. Then he birdied five of his last six holes to shoot an 8-under round of 64. Hayes not only moved up 84 spots on the leaderboard to a tie for 32nd at 1-under 215, he posted the lowest NCAA Tournament round in school history, topping the mark of 65 (-7) by John Peterson in the 2011 NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
How wild and ridiculous was this comeback?
“I might be at a loss for words,” Amos said. “We talked about just not quitting, and we kind of tried to play the golf course in different sections. Get off to hot start, survive 12 through 14, and we did that. It is just kind of the proudest I’ve ever been of any team. I booked our flights before the round. I’m just going to tell you. But our message, seriously, was let’s just see what we can do. No pressure just be super aggressive. I think we were tentative in round one, and we weren’t really clicking. Tigers don’t quit and we didn’t. We finally showed the firepower this team has.”
The five LSU players in the play 5-count 4 format of college golf posted a combined 12-under par on holes 10-18 to start the day. This was the same nine holes that LSU started on in the first round on Friday, and the five players posted 12-over par.
Hayes was 3-under par after eight holes, but his ninth hole, the par-5 18th was not looking good after a water ball. But a strong approach and short putt gave him a par and momentum heading to the front nine. It all clicked for Hayes as he posted birdies on the fourth, fifth, par-5 sixth and seventh, before a great approach on the difficult ninth gave him a score of 31 on the final nine (holes 1-9) and the school mark.
“We’ve seen how good Dan has been all year, and he’s been literally just waiting for a round like that. I’m delighted he got it today,” Amos said.
“Coming down 18 (his ninth hole of the day), I made par with a seven iron for my fourth shot,” Hayes said. “I think that was when I kind of knew, I could take it low. I’ve been playing fine all week. I just knew we needed to make birdies. We were terrible the first round. I think everyone will say it, and we just knew we had to go low, and I think today there was no holding back. Like we had nothing to lose, and we know how good we are. Every single one of us can shoot seven, eight under, so when it all clicks, it clicks.”
Amos was amazed.
“For him to finish it off in the biggest stage, a course record at La Costa, that’s going to be tough to beat,” Amos said. “Not only that, it was in the afternoon. I could see a course record in the morning, where it’s softer and no wind, but he played it in the teeth of the wind and that was awesome.”
The seventh-ranked Tigers brought it from all corners as Jay Mendell posted a 4-under 68 to move up 41 places in the standings, and Matty Dodd-Berry and Arni Sveinsson both had 3-under par 69s. Dodd-Berry moved up 30 spots to finish 54 holes in a tie for 47th at even par. Sveinsson moved up 44 spots.
LSU as a team had 28 birdies, led by the nine by Hayes. Mendell and Sveinsson each had six, Dodd-Berry had four and Noah McWilliams three. LSU has 53 birdies for the first three rounds, which is tied for fifth in the 30-team field. LSU is tied for fourth on par-3 scoring at 3.03 (+2), and Hayes is the tournament leader on the par 4s at 3.77 (-7).
The Tigers are now only three shots out of eighth place, which will be the cut after Monday’s round at 1-under par by Duke.
“I mean, we’ve got the game plan already,” Amos said. “Just do the same again. The biggest thing now is just making sure our energy is good. Probably go to In-and-Out Burger again, same meal we had yesterday, and just try and keep the same energy going.”
No. 1 Auburn is the tournament leader at 22-under par, three shots up on Texas and 10 shots back to Vanderbilt at -9.
LSU will start on hole 10 again on Monday at 12:41 central time.
The final round will be televised over-the-air by The GOLF Channel beginning at 2:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. Baton Rouge time). Live scoring is available at Scoreboard.clippd.com.
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