TIGER RAG NEWS SERVICES
A season of success has LSU at the pinnacle of men’s college golf as the No. 7 LSU men’s golf team begins play Friday in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship at the OMNI La Costa Resort course in Carlsbad, Califorina.
The Tigers begin the opening 54 holes of the event in the preferred late-early tee times, starting at 2:45 p.m. central time off the 10th tee. LSU will play in the morning group on Saturday.
“It’s actually one of the only advantages you get from having a good season,” said LSU second-year coach Jake Amos. “If you are ranked in the top 15, you get that. You can see how the course is playing in the morning. You can change, adjust for the afternoon, and then you really get to separate yourself to get the good tee time on Sunday.”
While it is important, there is another message from Amos about the job ahead.
“Our goal this year is from what I’m learned in the past,” he said. “It is not to get lost in the big picture of the 30 teams. It’s more just try and win each day. If you can be the best team every single day, that’s how you get through.”
LSU had three team wins in the 2025-26 season with finishes no worse than fourth in 10-of-11 starts in the play five-count four format of college golf.
The Tigers will go with juniors Jay Mendell (69.43) and Noah McWilliams (69.48), both from Louisiana (Mendell from Lafayette and McWilliams from Benton) along with freshman Dan Hayes of England (70.09), sophomore Arni Sveinsson of Iceland (70.15) and senior Matty Dodd-Berry (70.39) of England. Baton Rouge senior Luke Askew (73.46) is the alternate.
Mendell and Haskew of LSU played in the 2024 championship, the first year it was played at La Costa, and Dodd-Berry was part of the 2024 team that Amos brought here while coach at East Tennessee State.
“Arni has had a bit of injury, but he’s really starting to play well,” Amos said. “McWilliams has improved tremendously. Jay Mendell has had a phenomenal spring. One guy that really doesn’t get a lot of attention is our freshman, Dan Hayes. He’s incredibly consistent. He’s always there. He’s been our absolute rock. For a freshman, that’s unusual. Matty has been playing well. Individually, I genuinely mean this – one through five – anyone could win it. I think there were a lot of teams that didn’t want us to be here because we’re just starting to click. Arnie’s starting to play better. Matty’s playing better. Jay and Noah have been great, and Dan has been super consistent. So, I promise you, all of them are trying to win it, which is a good thing for the team.
In the NCAA/Scoreboard rankings, all five LSU starters are ranked in the top 151 of Division I college golf. Mendell is at No. 47, McWilliams is ranked from 62, Sveinsson 73, Hayes 126 and Dodd-Berry 151.
“The course really suits our games,” Amos said. “We’re good ball strikers. We’re very disciplined. I think you have to be aggressive off the team, but you also have to be very disciplined and focused into the greens. You need to miss in the right spots, and we work on that a lot, so I’m excited about that.”
LSU will be making its 44th appearance in the NCAA Championships, having won national titles in 1940, 1942, 1947, 1955 and 2015. Three times, the individual national champion has come from LSU – Fred Haas Jr. in 1937, Earl Stewart in 1971 and John Peterson in 2011.
The teams will play 18-hole rounds each day through Sunday when the first cut will take place to 15 teams. After a final round on Monday, the individual champion will be crowned. Then the top eight teams will begin match play on Tuesday with a national champion crowned on Wednesday. For the first two rounds, LSU will be paired with Ole Miss and North Carolina. Ole Miss is the No. 8 seed and North Carolina is seeded ninth.
Live scoring for the event can be found at Scoreboard.clippd.com. Live streaming will be available through Babygrande on Golfchannel.com beginning around 12:30 p.m. PT through the conclusion of the first round.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Carlsbad, California – OMNI La Costa Resort & Spa North Course
First Round Tee Times (central time)
1st Tee
8:52 a.m. – Georgia, Florida State, Southern California
9:47 a.m. – Mississippi State, Arkansas State, Purdue
10:42 a.m. – Individual Qualifier Pairing
2:12 p.m. – Virginia, Oklahoma State, Arkansas
3:07 p.m. – Vanderbilt, Arizona, Arizona State
4:02 p.m. – Individual Pairing
10th tee
8:30 a.m. – Tennessee, Texas A&M, BYU
9:25 a.m. – Duke, UCLA, Louisville
10:20 a.m. – San Diego, Chattanooga, Memphis
1:50 p.m. – Auburn, Florida, Texas
2:45 p.m. – LSU, Ole Miss, North Carolina
3:40 p.m. – Pepperdine, Stanford, Oklahoma
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