BATON ROUGE — The accolades continue to roll in for members of the LSU men’s golf team as sophomore John Peterson has been named a First-Team All-SEC selection and Sang Yi has been named a member of the SEC All-Freshman Team as announced by the league office Monday.
Peterson is the first LSU Tiger to earn first-team all-conference distinction since John Humphries in 2003, while Yi is the fourth member of the squad to be named to the SEC All-Freshman Team since the league included the rookie squad in its postseason awards for the first time a year ago.
Peterson, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, has taken his game to another level as a sophomore while proving to be among the premier players in all of college golf.
He leads the team and is currently ranked No. 6 among all players in the SEC with a 72.37 stroke average while appearing in all 10 tournaments for the Tigers this season, a dramatic improvement of nearly two strokes from his scoring average of 74.11 as a freshman a year ago. His five Top 10 finishes is also among the SEC leaders and leads the team this season.
With his first career individual victory at the John Hayt Invitational on Feb. 24, Peterson became the first LSU golfer to win medalist honors since 2005.
He will lead the Tigers into NCAA Regional play as he has earned third-place finishes in each of his last three tournament starts, including a third-place finish at the SEC Championships on April 19. It marks the first time LSU has had a player finish among the top five individually at the SEC Championships since 2003 when Humphries tied for fifth place.
With his performance, Peterson has risen to No. 27 nationally in the latest individual college poll released by Golfweek that ranks the top players at the collegiate level.
Yi has also been impressive while competing for the Tigers this season as he was named an SEC All-Freshman Team member as one of the premier rookies in the country.
A native of Carrollton, Texas, Yi is the 99th-ranked golfer in the country by Golfweek as he ranks sixth among freshmen in the SEC with a 73.74 scoring average this season. He also ranks second to Peterson with four Top 10 and three top-five finishes in 2008-09.
Yi’s best performance of the season was at the Schenkel/E-Z-Go Invitational on March 22 when he earned a fourth-place finish with a career-best score of 2-under par 214 in one of the strongest fields the Tigers have seen this season. He followed that performance by tying for fourth place in the individual standings at the Reunion Intercollegiate on April 7 to match his best finish of 2009.
The duo has led the Tigers to new heights during the 2008-09 season as the squad has captured an impressive three tournament championships this season, the most by an LSU team since 2003-04. The Tigers are also fresh off their best finish at the SEC Men’s Golf Championships since 2002 as it tied for fourth place in the event back on April 19.
LSU has been crowned champion of the Gopher Invitational (Sept. 12-14), John Hayt Invitational (Feb. 22-24) and Reunion Intercollegiate (April 6-7) as it heads into postseason play.
Not only that, but the Tigers have been a staple in the national rankings all season long as they are currently ranked No. 18 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, as well as No. 21 in the updated Golfstat Top 25 and No. 22 in the latest Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches Top 25.
2009 SEC MEN’S GOLF POSTSEASON AWARDS
SEC Coach of the Year
Brad McMakin, Arkansas
SEC Player of the Year
Billy Horschel, Florida
SEC Freshman of the Year
Bud Cauley, Alabama
SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Mark Silvers III, South Carolina
First-Team All-SEC
*Bud Cauley, Fr., Alabama
*Brian Harman, Sr., Georgia
*Russell Henley, So., Georgia
*Billy Horschel, Sr., Florida
Harris English, So., Georgia
Andrew Landry, Sr., Arkansas
Chris Paisley, Sr., Tennessee
John Peterson, So., LSU
Hudson Swafford, Jr., Georgia
Second-Team All-SEC
George Bryan IV, Jr., South Carolina
Joe David, Fr., Ole Miss
David Lingmerth, Jr., Arkansas
Tim McKenney, Jr., Florida
Adam Mitchell, Sr., Georgia
Mark Silvers III, Sr., South Carolina
Robin Wingardh, So., Tennessee
Andy Winings, Sr., Kentucky
SEC All-Freshman Team
Wesley Bryan, South Carolina
Bud Cauley, Alabama
Sean Dale, Ole Miss
Joe David, Ole Miss
Hunter Hamrick, Alabama
Darren Renwick, Tennessee
Ethan Tracy, Arkansas
Sang Yi, LSU