HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana takes on a strong field as the Lions open the 2017 spring golf season at the All-American Intercollegiate Presented by Coca-Cola this weekend at the Golf Club of Houston in Humble, Texas.

    The three-day, 54-hole tournament, hosted by the University of Houston and Rice University, will be contested on the par-72, 7,422-yard Tournament Course, home of the PGA Tour's Shell Houston Open. The first round gets underway Friday at 9 a.m. off tees one and 10. Saturday's action also starts at 9 a.m. on both tees while Sunday's final round will start at 8 a.m.  

    Live results, provided by the hosts, can be accessed at the Southeastern golf schedule page at www.LionSports.net.

    Southeastern, which enters the spring ranked 97^th by GolfStat, will be joined in the field by top-ranked Vanderbilt. Baylor (No. 13), Auburn (21) and South Carolina (38) are also in the top 50. Also scheduled to compete are hosts Houston and Rice, Charlotte, Houston Baptist, Lamar, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, McNeese, SMU, UT-San Antonio, Samford, Sam Houston State and Wisconsin.

    Seniors James Anstiss and Paul Obermann and sophomores Joris Etlin, William Meyers and Bailey Smith will be the starting five for Southeastern.

    "We're going to a great tournament against a very good field," Southeastern head coach Jake Narro said. "What we are going to get out of this is to find out where we are and where we need to go. It's going to be a good test for us and we have to play good. It's time for us to play a good tournament and start building for toward the end of the year and the conference tournament."

    Southeastern finished sixth, seventh, eighth and tied for 10^th at its four tournaments in the fall. Obermann had a team-best 73.58 stroke average over the four tournaments and tied for sixth at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate.

    Meyers averaged a 74.58 in his four tournaments, tying for 10^th at the Duck Commander Intercollegiate. Anstiss tied for 13^th at the David Toms Intercollegiate and finished the fall with a 75.50 average over four tournaments. Etlin (76.58) and Smith (77.50) also competed in all four fall events with Smith tying for sixth at the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate.

    Southeastern last competed at the Golf Club of Houston in 2015, tying for sixth at the Bayou City Collegiate. Anstiss, then a sophomore, tied for 10th with a 2-under-par 214.

    After this weekend, Southeastern will compete at the Louisiana Classics at Oakbourne Country Club in Lafayette Feb. 27-28.