No. 9 LSU repeats at The Prestige at PGA West

LA QUINTA, CA (February 22, 2017) -- Riding the momentum of their brilliant 6-under second round performance No. 9 LSU finished The Prestige at PGA West even-par and repeated as champions. After beginning the round 1-over and just one shot in front, the Tigers led by as many as nine shots in the final round before holding on to win by four-strokes over runner-up Pepperdine. LSU was paced throughout the week at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West by sophomore standout Sam Burns. During Wednesday's final round, Burns turned in his second consecutive under-par tally as he posted 5-under for the week and finished second. Burns, the 2016 Sun Bowl All-America Golf Classic winner, signed a day three 4-under 67 scorecard that included six birdies and two bogeys. LSU received contributions throughout the tournament from their entire roster; Luis Gagne (T14; E), Eric Ricard (T26; +5), Philip Barbaree (T32; +7) and Nathan Jeansonne (T52; +12). Barbaree, a freshman early enrollee this semester, made his collegiate debut this week. In the medalist race Arizona State's Jared du Toit was able to go wire-to-wire and capture his first individual title since transferring from Idaho. While with with Vandals, du Toit won three individual titles, one being the 2015 Big Sky Conference Championship, but despite some close calls he had never been able to break through with the Sun Devils. 4-under after the first round and tied for the lead, du Toit would not be slowed firing two more red figure rounds, including his final day 1-under 70 that pushed him to 9-under. Off to a slow start with a second hole bogey, du Toit responded with three birdies on the eighth, 11th and 14th holes. Du Toit did bogey once more on No. 17 but his run in the middle of the round was enough to keep the rest of the field at bay. Runner-up Pepperdine was 4-over, No. 11 Oklahoma finished third at 6-over while No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 8 Stanford shared fourth at 9-over. Behind du Toit and Burns in the individual rankings there was a three-way tie for third place to round out the top-5. The third place trio at 4-under included Nahum Mendoza III (San Diego State), Quade Cummins (Oklahoma) and Sandy Scott (Texas Tech). Other notable scores include Stanford's Maverick McNealy and Pepperdine's Sahith Theegala sharing 18th at 1-over.