BATON ROUGE, La. – Mississippi State men’s golf finished the LSU Invitational with a three-day total of 894 to finish ninth. Junior Ford Clegg led the team, shooting an even 72 on Sunday to finish tied for eighth.

“I’m really proud of Garrett and Ford for handling a difficult day out there,” head coach Dusty Smith said. “That’s what I expect from those guys, and they played some huge rounds for us today. We were really close to having a great round today. We didn’t do a good job on our final three holes which cost us a bit at the end.”

 

Garrett Johnson held steady in the final round carding his second straight 73 to jump 13 places on the leaderboard to 27^th. The senior finished one-over for the day and 7-over for the tournament. True Freshman Loïc Ettlin fell behind from the previous round, shooting a 5-over 77 for the day, but his previous 69 kept him in the top 40.

Sophomore Hunter Logan and redshirt junior Ben Nelson both carded 78’s on the final day. William Wann, playing as an individual, teed off on Hole 10 and held steady through the back nine. He was slowed on Hole 2, carding a seven, and finished the day at 6-over 78.

“I told this group that we are so close to knocking that barrier down,” Smith said. “We just need to keep putting ourselves in that position. We will take these next few weeks cleaning some things up. Our focus needs to be better throughout the entire golf tournament. You can’t play some of the holes, you have to play all of them. This is a special group who will learn and grow from this experience. We look forward to our next step in our process.”

For their next action, the Bulldogs will visit the Grand National Golf Course in Auburn, Alabama, to compete in the Tiger Invitational on March 15-17. State last played in the tournament in the 2017-18 season.

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LSU Invitational – Final

1. Illinois (876, +12)
2. Vanderbilt (878, +14)
3. South Carolina (881, +17)
4. Arkansas State (887, +23)
5. Florida (889, +25)
6. Auburn (891, +27)
7. Tennessee (892, +28)
8. Ole Miss (893, +29)
9. Mississippi State (894, +30)
10. Georgia (899, +35)
11. Kentucky (900, +36)
12. Missouri (903, +39)
13. LSU (904, +40)
14. Louisiana Tech (931, +67)
15. Alabama (DNF, +27)

 

Mississippi State (306, 288, 300 = 894)

            T7. Ford Clegg (77, 70,72 = 219)

            T24. Garrett Johnson (77, 73, 73 =223)

            T38. Loïc Ettlin (79, 69, 77 = 225)

            T58. Hunter Logan (75, 76, 78 = 229)

            T65. Benjamin Nelson (77, 76, 78 =231)