BROUSSARD — Lafayette’s Michael Smith was one of the few players on the Le Triomphe practice range late Tuesday afternoon, battling the blustery winds in preparation for his Thursday opening round in the Chitimacha Louisiana Open.

While recorded gusts of up to 43 mph limited Tuesday’s practice rounds, Smith was experimenting with hybrids on the range while having one of his putters re-weighted in one of the Nationwide Tour club-fitting trailers. An Adams Super Hybrid was getting a good look during his practice session.

"I’m the biggest tinkerer there is," said Smith, a sponsor exemption into the field who will be making his fourth Louisiana Open appearance at his 2:20 p.m. tee time Thursday. "But out here, all this (the club trailers) are right here at your fingertips.

"Everybody out here tinkers with clubs. It’s kind of hilarious to watch in a way "» but if you maybe can improve half a stroke a round, it’s worth it."

Smith made the Open cut in 2010 and missed the weekend last year, but the highlight of his 2011 season came later in the summer when he won the U.S. Open Sectional in Dallas and qualified for the U.S. Open.

Smith is one of four sponsor exemptions extended by the Open, joining Acadiana native Brent Delahoussaye of Greenville, S.C., Michael Clark II of Orlando, Fla., and Travis Wadkins of Dallas, Texas.

He’s also part of a Louisiana delegation that increased by one late Monday afternoon when former LSU standout Andrew Loupe was one of the Monday qualifiers at The Wetlands. The 2009 State Amateur champion carded a five-under-par 67 as one of the seven qualifiers there, hitting the qualifying mark on the number.

Loupe will be making his first Louisiana Open appearance, but he’s already appeared in another PGA Tour event in the state. He was also a Monday qualifier at last April’s Zurich Classic in New Orleans, where he made his first PGA Tour appearance.

Smith and Loupe also both had top-15 finishes at the Adams Tour stop in Alexandria over the weekend, with Loupe finishing tied for fifth at -12 and Smith tied for 15th at -9.

The state’s other representative in the field is Baton Rouge’s Phil Schmitt, who earned a spot as the PGA Gulf States Section’s Player of the Year. It’ll be his seventh Louisiana Open outing since 2005, and he’ll be looking to make the cut for the first time.

The Gulf States Section will also be represented by PGA Life Member Reed Hughes of Senatobia, Miss., and Tim Yelverton of West Point, Miss. They were the top two finishers in the Feb. 27 Sectional Qualifier at Le Triomphe, with Hughes carding a four-under 68 and Yelverton posting a two-under 70. Yelverton was also in the field last year while Hughes will be making his first Open appearance.

Rain or shine

Participants in today’s two Louisiana Open pro-am events are on call "» show up at Le Triomphe, rain or shine.

The weather forecast for Wednesday isn’t good, with rain probabilities approaching 100 percent and the possibility of severe weather, but Open officials said they will go to great lengths to stage both the 8 a.m. AT&T Pro-Am and the 1:15 p.m. Grey Goose Pro-Am.

"We may get delayed and at some point we may have to suspend play," said Open executive director Danny Jones, "but we’re going to do whatever we possibly can to let our pro-am players get out there and play. If we get in a couple of nine-hole pro-ams, that’s what we get in, but we’ll do everything we can to get both of them in."

Good field

Today’s two pro-am fields will feature five previous Open champions, with Paul Claxton (2001), Steven Alker (2002) and Gavin Coles (2008) playing in the morning and Fabian Gomez (2010) and two-time Open champion Brett Wetterich (2003, 2011) in the afternoon.

Also playing in the morning pro-am are two of the Nationwide Tour’s previous tournament winners this season during the international portion of the Tour. Edward Loar captured the Panama Claro Championship in the Tour’s second outing of the season, while Paul Haley II won the Chile Classic two weeks ago in only his third Tour outing.

Field changes

Four players moved into the field Tuesday off the alternate list with withdrawals from the field. Making it in were veterans Guy Boros and Len Mattiace, who between them have a combined 987 combined appearance on the Nationwide and PGA Tours. Mattiace (501 such appearances) won the 2002 Nissan Open and the

FedEx St. Jude Classic and has won nearly $7 million in his PGA Tour career, while Boros won the PGA Tour’s 1996 Greater Vancouver Open.

Also making the field as third and fourth alternate were Kevin Johnson and Michael Sim.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

(events at Le Triomphe Golf & Country Club)
Today
AT&T Pro-Am, 8 a.m.
Grey Goose Pro-Am, 1:15 p.m.
Thursday
Championship First Round, 7:40 a.m. off Nos. 1 and 10 tees
Friday
Championship Second Round, 7:40 a.m. off Nos. 1 and 10 tees
Saturday
Championship Third Round, time TBA
Sunday
Championship Final Round, time TBA