The No. 6 LSU men’s golf team, coming off their strong stroke play performance in the Southeastern Conference Championships, has earned the No. 1 seed in the Amherst (Virginia) Regional, scheduled for May 12-14.
Six 54-hole regional tournaments will be conducted on those days. A total of 13 teams and 10 individuals not on those teams will compete at each of three regionals, while the other three regionals will have 14 teams and five individuals not on those teams. The top five teams and the low individual not on those teams from each regional will advance to the finals.
The national championship tournament for the men will be decided May 23-28 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.
The Tigers, looking to make the championships for the second straight year, have four team wins on the season and finished a solid second in the stroke play portion of the SEC event last week at St. Simons Island, Georgia.
“It’s pretty cool,” said first-year Tiger Coach Jake Amos on the No. 1 seed. “We didn’t really ever talk about being a number one seed at the start of the year, but then as things progressed that was definitely a goal of ours, particularly as SECs was coming up, we knew we were right on the edge. We were seven, and we thought if we played good at SEC stroke play, we’d get the one seed. So that was our goal.”
The teams in the Amherst, Virginia regional are as follows (NCAA Scoreboard ranking and conferences for automatic qualifiers are listed):
1 No. 6 LSU
2 No. 7 Oklahoma
3 No. 18 Vanderbilt
4 No. 19 Pepperdine (West Coast Conference)
5 No. 30 Tennessee
6 No. 31 Arizona
7 No. 42 Stanford
8 No. 43 Wake Forest
9 No. 55 Arkansas
10 No. 56 Florida Gulf Coast
11 No. 78 Kent State (Mid-American Conference)
12 No. 82 Princeton (The Ivy League)
13 No. 252 Howard (Northeast Conference)
The tournament will be played at the Poplar Grove Golf Club in Amherst. Virginia. The course is a Sam Snead and Ed Carton original design and was Snead’s final design, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The golf course, which was renovated in 2021, features spectacular views and will manicured bent grass tees, fairways and greens.
“I heard about the golf course,” said Coach Amos. “The golf course is supposed to be great, bent grass and the field is some big names and good teams. But I mean being a one seed, you’re expected to win, so that’s always our goal, every time, is to win, no matter what.”
On the Golf Channel selection show, writer/analyst Brentley Romine had some good words for the Tigers and their No. 1 selection:
“When this hire (of Jake Amos) was announced last year, I thought it was a brilliant one for the LSU men’s golf program. You think about what Jake Amos did at East Tennessee State. As a head coach, he has never not gotten his team to the NCAA Championships. He also won a regional a few years ago.
“I think year one in Baton Rouge for Jake, and you could ask him yourself, and he would say it’s probably surprising how quickly they have gotten into this elite level in men’s college golf. You’ve mentioned Algot Kleen, Arni Sveinsson, the freshmen from Iceland, they’ve kind of stolen the headlines. Jay Mendell (with) two top three finishes in his last four starts entering the postseason. Amos calls him the ‘heart’ of this golf team; one of the few holdovers from the previous administration.”
In the present NCAA Scoreboard rankings, Kleen is ranked No. 10 in the nation with Sveinsson at 21 and Mendell’s top three SEC finish boasted him to No. 54 in the rankings with Alfons Bondesson also inside the top 100 at No. 83.
Having experience in the postseason is something that Amos can apply as the Tigers get ready for their trip.
“The first step is not to do anything different. Try and treat it normal,” he said. “But also there are the same goals as every event. So every event you are trying to win and think the same things going to regionals, prepping to win. As coaches, that’s what we’re discussing right now, is what’s our best game plan. We’ve got a really seasoned group. They are all well prepared for elite events. So I think our job is just to give them an environment where they are going to thrive.”
The complete regional selections by the NCAA:
Poplar Grove Golf Club – Amherst, Virginia
Hosted by Liberty
Teams (seeded in the following order):
1. LSU
2. Oklahoma
3. Vanderbilt
4. Pepperdine [West Coast Conference]
5. Tennessee
6. Arizona
7. Stanford
8. Wake Forest
9. Arkansas
10. Florida Gulf Coast
11. Kent State [Mid-American Conference]
12. Princeton [The Ivy League]
13. Howard [Northeast Conference]
Individuals (seeded in the following order):
1. Andrew Swanson, Clemson
2. Kaleb Wilson, West Virginia
3. Ike Joy, Liberty
4. Emil Riegger, Maryland
5. Peicheng Chen, St. John’s (New York)
6. Sakke Siltala, Texas State
7. Henric Bjelke, Campbell [Coastal Athletic Association]
8. Colin Dutton, UNCG [Southern Conference]
9. Alex Heard, UConn [Big East Conference]
10. Nolan Schuermann, Holy Cross [Patriot League]
Atkins Golf Club – Urbana, Illinois
Hosted by Illinois
Teams (seeded in the following order):
1. Oklahoma State [Big 12 Conference]
2. North Carolina
3. Illinois
4. Texas Tech
5. Long Beach State [Big West Conference]
6. UNLV
7. Houston
8. Marquette [Big East Conference]
9. Troy
10. Pacific
11. NC State
12. Illinois State [Missouri Valley Conference]
13. Wright State [Horizon League]
Individuals (seeded in the following order):
1. Hunter Thomson, Michigan
2. Jack Schoenberger, Kentucky
3. Paul Beauvy, Iowa State
4. Patton Samuels, Austin Peay
5. Anthony Delisanti, Valparaiso
6. Clay Merchent, Indiana
7. Ryan Ford, Cincinnati
8. Ben Cors, Dayton [Atlantic 10 Conference]
9. Titus Boswell, IU Indy [Horizon League]
10. Trey Wall, Murray State [Missouri Valley Conference]
Auburn University Club – Auburn, Alabama
Hosted by Auburn
Teams (seeded in the following order):
1. Auburn
2. Texas A&M
3. UCLA [Big Ten Conference]
4. SMU
5. Georgia Tech
6. Oregon
7. Purdue
8. University of Arkansas at Little Rock [Ohio Valley Conference]
9. TCU
10. Charleston
11. New Mexico State
12. Loyola Maryland [Patriot League]
13. USC Upstate [Big South Conference]
Individuals (seeded in the following order):
1. Louis Anceaux, University of Louisiana Monroe
2. Claes Borregaard, Kennesaw State
3. Xing Luo, North Alabama
4. Thomas Schmidt, Arkansas State
5. Parker Claxton, Georgia Southern
6. Camden Braidech, Chattanooga
7. Yixiang Wang, Memphis
8. Jack Maxey, Arkansas State [Sun Belt Conference]
9. Jeep Patrick, Presbyterian [Big South Conference]
10. Jonathan Xoinis, UT Martin [Ohio Valley Conference]
Gold Mountain Golf Club – Bremerton, Washington
Hosted by Washington
Teams (seeded in the following order):
1. Arizona State
2. Florida [Southeastern Conference]
3. Utah
4. South Carolina
5. South Florida
6. Colorado
7. Charlotte [American Athletic Conference]
8. Kansas
9. Colorado State
10. Kansas State
11. Elon [Coastal Athletic Association]
12. Coastal Carolina [Sun Belt Conference]
13. Oral Roberts [The Summit League]
14. Seattle U [Western Athletic Conference]
Individuals (seeded in the following order):
1. Sam Renner, Washington State
2. Lukas Boandl, Rice
3. Mason Snyder, Loyola Marymount
4. Cade Anderson, Loyola Marymount
5. Daniel Zou, Rice
Montreux Golf and Country Club – Reno, Nevada
Hosted by Nevada and Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority
Teams (seeded in the following order):
1. Texas
2. Virginia [Atlantic Coast Conference]
3. Alabama
4. Duke
5. Mississippi State
6. Brigham Young
7. San Diego
8. Santa Clara
9. California
10. Grand Canyon
11. Sam Houston [Conference USA]
12. East Tennessee State [Southern Conference]
13. Central Arkansas [ASUN Conference]
14. Fairfield [Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference]
Individuals (seeded in the following order):
1. Dane Huddleston, Utah Valley [Western Athletic Conference]
2. Baron Szeto, Cal Poly
3. Max Schliesing, UTEP
4. Tegan Andrews, Cal State Fullerton
5. Dylan Teeter, UTEP
Seminole Legacy Golf Club – Tallahassee, Florida
Hosted by Florida State
Teams (seeded in the following order):
1. Ole Miss
2. Florida State
3. San Diego State [Mountain West Conference]
4. Georgia
5. Louisville
6. Northwestern
7. Notre Dame
8. New Mexico
9. Southern California
10. Michigan State
11. Furman
12. Augusta [Southland Conference]
13. Davidson [Atlantic 10 Conference]
14. Florida A&M [Southwestern Athletic Conference]
Individuals (seeded in the following order):
1. Malan Potgieter, Louisiana
2. NaShawn Tyson, Florida Atlantic
3. Hugo Thyr, South Alabama
4. Niilo Maki-Petaja, Louisiana Tech
5. Gaspar Glaudas, Stetson [ASUN Conference]
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