The LSU Tigers men’s golf team is gearing up for a challenging event as they prepare to compete in the 125th United States Amateur Championship starting on Monday in San Francisco.
Despite the LSU Tigers’ official 2025-26 golf season not commencing for another month, the team features a lineup of five talented players, all aiming for success in this prestigious amateur tournament.
These five LSU golfers are part of a larger field of 312 competitors, all facing the intense task of completing 36 holes of qualifying over the next two days.
The qualification rounds will be held at two of The Olympic Club’s renowned courses: the par 70 Lake Course, measuring 7,214 yards, and the Ocean Course, which is also a par 70 but spans 6,787 yards.
The Olympic Club is no stranger to high-stakes golf, having previously hosted several major championships, including five U.S. Opens and four U.S. Amateurs, with the last major event being the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open.
The LSU representation includes freshman Dan Hayes from Manchester, England, sophomore Arni Sveinsson from Iceland, and juniors Noah McWilliams from Benton, Louisiana, and Jay Mendell from Lafayette, Louisiana.
Senior Matty Dodd-Berry, hailing from Wirral, England, rounds out the LSU quintet.
Mendell and Sveinsson secured their places in the tournament due to their impressive World Amateur Golf Rankings, having ranked in the top 100 as of May 21.
Dodd-Berry followed suit, earning his spot with a top 100 ranking as of June 22.
McWilliams and Hayes made it through sectional qualifying, with McWilliams advancing from the Houston regional and Hayes qualifying in Rockwall, Texas.
In total, the field of 312 amateurs was selected from an overwhelming 5,245 original entries submitted to the USGA for this championship.
According to rankings, Sveinsson is currently positioned at No. 13 in the World Rankings, while Mendell sits at 73 and Dodd-Berry at 106.
Sveinsson, who had an outstanding season and earned All-America honors as a freshman, last competed in the St. Andrews Cup.
This event features teams from Great Britain and Ireland pitted against a European squad, and Sveinsson also participated as part of the International team for the Arnold Palmer Cup earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Mendell demonstrated strong performance this summer, achieving two top-10 finishes in major amateur competitions, including a seventh-place finish in the Southern Amateur and a 17th-place finish in the North-South Amateur Golf Championship.
Notably, Mendell finished third in the stroke play portion of the 2025 SEC Championship.
Dodd-Berry, in his previous competition, finished 35th in the Western Amateur and 65th in the R&A’s Amateur Championship.
McWilliams also had a competitive summer and recently finished T4 in the Monroe Invitational, a 72-hole stroke play event in New York, along with a 20th-place finish in the Southeastern Amateur and third in the Louisiana State Amateur.
Hayes’s recent activity included participation in the USGA Junior Amateur and representing England in the European Amateur Team Championship, where he achieved a fifth-place finish in the Scottish Men’s Open Championship.
As the competition begins, McWilliams will be the first LSU player off the tee at 10:45 a.m. CT from the 10th tee of the Ocean Course.
Jay Mendell will follow in the afternoon wave at 2:57 p.m. CT, also starting from the Ocean Course’s 10th tee.
Hayes is scheduled to tee off at 3:07 p.m. CT from the Ocean Course’s first tee, with Sveinsson starting at the same time on hole 10.
Dodd-Berry is set to be the only LSU golfer tackling the Lake Course on Monday, teeing off at 3:39 p.m. CT from the ninth tee, which serves as the opening hole due to course logistics.
The match play portion of the championship will be televised on The Golf Channel, with coverage beginning Wednesday afternoon.
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