La. Open celebrating its silver anniversary with record field

BROUSSARD – The state of Louisiana’s oldest professional golf tournament celebrates its silver anniversary this weekend.
The Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by Nacher returns this week to Le Triomphe Golf and Country Club. The Web.com Tour event has called the Lafayette area home for 25 years and serves as the tour’s first stop this year in the United States.
“It is an exciting time,” Chitimacha Louisiana Open Executive Director Danny Jones said. “This is what we work all year for but more importantly it is the 25th anniversary. It is quite the humbling experience to know that Lafayette, Louisiana, one of the smallest markets on tour, has been home for this tournament now for 25 years.”
This year’s field, with a tournament record 152 golfers, features a slew of champions.
Past tournament champions Kelly Kraft (2015), Andrew Loar (2013), Casey Wittenberg (2012), as well as the event’s only two-time champion Brett Wetterich (2003, 2011) will be in the field. In addition, former LSU star Curtis Thompson, 2016 Olympian Hao Tong Li and this season’s two other Web.com Tour winners, Sebastian Munoz and Ryan Armour are teeing off.
Armour enters the Louisiana Open having finally broken through with a tournament victory.
The 40-year-old golfer had spent 17 years playing both the Web.com Tour and PGA Tour but never was able to pull out a victory. That was until this season’s opening tournament, the Panama Claro Championship, in which he won by three strokes.
“Relief,” said Armour when asked about his first victory. “It had been a long time coming. Someone had texted me or emailed me and told me that it had been 299 combined starts between this tour and the PGA Tour. To get that win was huge.
“I just played solid golf,” Armour said. “I was relieved and almost vindicated with the process I have gone through. It was great way to start the year.”
For Lafayette native and former University Louisiana-Lafayette star Michael Smith is looking to get his year on track.
Smith had planned to use last weekend’s Adams Golf Pro Tour event in Alexandria, the 13th Coke Dr. Pepper Walmart Open, as a tune-up for the Louisiana Open. That event though was rescheduled due to the severe weather that blanketed the state.
Smith, who is playing this week on a sponsor exemption, is playing in his eighth Louisiana Open.
“It is great to play in front of friends and family,” Smith said. “It is not often you get a home game. A lot of people never get a home game in golf. Very thankful to the guys at the Louisiana Open to give me this opportunity to play this week and hoping to make the most of it.”
The course, designed by renowned golf architect Robert Trent Jones Jr., always presents challenges with Holes 13-15 usually deciding who takes home the title.
“You see a lot of different winners out there,” Smith said. “You see long hitters, you see short hitters. The key out here is the Par 5s to me. They are pretty much most days all reachable. The key is the Par 5 scoring and staying away from the holes on the back nine that can really get you in trouble. You want to get a par there but even a five won’t kill you. You just have to avoid the big numbers.”
The other factor has always been the swirling winds at the course.
“It blows out here,” Armour said. “It gets windy out here. For the long hitters the Par 5s are definitely gettable. You got to get through four or five holes out there that are really difficult. Holes 13 and 14 are very difficult holes and 18 and have water on both sides so it is challenge.”
The Louisiana Open is scheduled to begin Thursday with the first groups teeing off at 7:20 a.m.