BATON ROUGE — LSU All-American John Peterson will join 31 of the top college golfers from across the country in El Paso, Texas, this weekend as he has been invited to compete in the 35th-annual Western Refining College All-American Golf Classic beginning Monday at El Paso Country Club.
The Sun Bowl Association plays host to the annual 54-hole event as this year’s championship will return to the par-71, 6,837-yard layout at El Paso Country Club.
With 32 competitors in this year’s field, the Western Refining College All-American Golf Classic features its largest field in the 35-year history of the event, breaking the previous record of 31 competitors in the 31st edition of the championship in 2005.
Peterson is one of six Golfweek preseason All-America selections competing in the event as he joins such college stars as Russell Henley of Georgia, Matt Hill of NC State, Morgan Hoffman of Oklahoma State, Scott Langley of Illinois and Nick Taylor of Washington.
The championship features two days of competition as the first two rounds will be held Monday followed by the final round on Tuesday. Live scoring of the event can be found online at www.golfstat.com.
“We’re certainly very proud of John and all that he has accomplished both on and off the course during an outstanding career here at LSU,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “He has worked very hard on his game to reach the level of success that he currently enjoys. We’re very fortunate to have him as a member of our program. It’s certainly an honor for John to be selected to compete in such a great event.”
Peterson will be the ninth LSU Tiger all-time to play in the Western Refining College All-American Golf Classic and the first since former LSU All-American P.J. Smith in 1997.
The field is limited to returning All-Americans from the previous collegiate season, Walker Cup members and the Division II and Division III National Players of the Year. Each school represented is awarded a $1,000 scholarship to benefit the men’s golf program. Since 1974, the Sun Bowl Association has donated close to $650,000 to men’s golf programs nationwide.
Last season, the Western Refining College All-American Golf Classic ranked as the No. 1 tournament for the fifth-straight season at the college level, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index.
Peterson, who earned Second-Team All-America honors from both Golfweek and PING last season, is off to a fast start in his junior season as he wrapped up LSU’s fall campaign with a team-leading 70.8 scoring average and two top-five finishes in four tournament appearances.