CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Junior All-American John Peterson wrapped up an impressive week at the 2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships on Thursday afternoon with scores of 4-under 68 in a postponed second round and 2-under 70 in the final round held at The Honors Course en route to a top-10 finish on the leaderboard in LSU’s season finale.
Peterson snapped a 19-year drought by becoming the first LSU Tiger to earn a top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships by firing a 5-under par 211 in 54 holes to tie for sixth place in medal play.
Former Tiger standout Perry Moss was the last LSU golfer to finish on the Top 10 of the final leaderboard at the national championships when he tied for fourth place in 1991.
Not only that, but Peterson’s tournament score of 5-under 211 is the lowest in relation to par for a Tiger at the NCAA Championships since at least 1985.
“I’ve been playing really well coming into the tournament. I even played well at the regional except in my second round,” Peterson said. “I didn’t do anything that great this week, but I think I did everything pretty well. This season has been pretty up and down for me. It feels pretty good to come back out and play well at the NCAA Championships. It’s a good way for me to end the season.
“But it’s still a bittersweet feeling because our goal as a team was to come here and move on from here to match play. We bring everybody back in the fall, so I think we have a great chance to do that next year. It gives us a lot of confidence. We’re going to have a great team next season.”
Peterson set the pace for the Tigers throughout the week as the team finished in 24th place in the standings in its first appearance at the NCAA Championships since 1997.
After the second round was postponed Wednesday night due to darkness, the Tigers returned to the course on Thursday morning at 6 a.m. CDT to finish the round with a team score of 2-over par 290 before ending the stroke play competition in the afternoon with a matching score of 2-over 290 in the final round.
Junior First-Team All-SEC selection and All-America candidate Andrew Loupe returned to the course on Thursday morning to finish with an even-par 72 in the second round. He then posted a score of 2-over par 74 in the final round to finish the week in a tie for 72nd place in the individual standings with a cumulative score of 5-over 221 in three rounds at The Honors Course.
Fellow junior Clayton Rotz carded consecutive rounds of 1-over 73 and 2-over 74 in the second and third rounds to finish up in a tie for 95th place at 8-over 224.
Sophomore Austin Gutgsell added an even-par round of 72 in Thursday’s final round to tie for 128th place overall at 13-over 229, while sophomore Sang Yi tied for 135th place at 14-over 230 for the week.
LSU’s first appearance at the NCAA Championships in 14 seasons caps the most successful campaign for the Tigers in more than a decade. With three tournament titles, the Tigers matched their highest total since winning four titles in 1988-89. And with a fifth-place finish at the SEC Championships, the Tigers earned back-to-back top-five finishes in the event for the first time since 1992-93.
This season also marks the first time since 1995-96 and 1996-97 that the Tigers have had a first-team All-SEC performer and All-America selection in back-to-back years.
The Tigers will return all five starters from their lineup that competed at the NCAA Championships and is set to welcome one of the nation’s premier recruiting classes with five newcomers joining the squad in the fall. With their talent and experience, LSU is sure to enjoy another outstanding season in 2010-11.
“We are all very proud of the progress that the program is making. Certainly, we’re not satisfied with 24th place at the NCAA Championships, but this group of guys continues to make progress,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. “I’m very happy for this group of guys and very proud of the way they played the last two rounds here in Chattanooga. They represented this program the way we expect.
“After a difficult start on Tuesday, their effort showed the kind of character and determination they’ve got and their ability to compete against the best programs in the country.”
After wrapping up 54 holes of stroke play on Thursday at the NCAA Championships, the top eight squads in the team standings earned the right to compete for a national championship in the single-elimination match play tournament that is set to begin Friday with the quarterfinal round.
Oklahoma State grabbed the No. 1 seed in match play after finishing with the lowest score in three rounds of stroke play with a 14-under par 850. The Cowboys’ first-round opponent will be determined Friday morning as Arizona State, San Diego and Stanford will battle for the No. 8 seed in a three-team playoff as they tied for eighth place in stoke play with matching scores of 4-over 868.
Florida State earned the No. 2 seed in match play after firing a 10-under 854 in 54 holes, while No. 3 seed Georgia Tech (858), No. 4 seed Washington (860), No. 5 seed Oregon (861), No. 6 seed August State (863) and No. 7 seed Texas Tech (867) will play for this year’s national championship.
NCAA MEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS – FINAL ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 864)
1. Oklahoma State 283-284-283 – 850 -14; 2. Florida State 283-279-292 – 854 -10; 3. Georgia Tech 290-282-286 – 858 -6; 4. Washington 289-288-283 – 860 -4; 5. Oregon 284-294-283 – 861 -3; 6. Augusta State 287-288-288 – 863 -1; 7. Texas Tech 302-285-280 – 867 +3; T8. Stanford 292-288-288 – 868 +4; T8. Arizona State 286-292-290 – 868 +4; T8. San Diego 294-282-292 – 868 +4; T11. Florida 287-289-293 – 869 +5; T11. Virginia 300-280-289 – 869 +5; 13. Texas A&M 285-304-282 – 871 +7; 14. North Florida 292-293-287 – 872 +8; 15. Southern California 295-290-289 – 874 +10; T16. Oregon State 295-293-287 – 875 +11; T16. Clemson 286-291-298 – 875 +11; T16. UCLA 294-286-295 – 875 +11; 19. Illinois 304-285-287 – 876 +12; 20. Kent State 292-293-292 – 877 +13; T21. UNLV 294-292-293 – 879 +15; T21. Texas 290-296-293 – 879 +15; 23. California 293-294-293 – 880 +16; 24. LSU 303-290-290 – 883 +19; T25. Baylor 294-295-295 – 884 +20; T25. Tennessee 297-292-295 – 884 +20; T27. Duke 296-297-296 – 889 +25; T27. TCU 302-296-291 – 889 +25; 29. Penn State 301-298-299 – 898 +34; 30. Georgia Southern 297-299-309 – 905 +41.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 216)
1. Scott Langley, Illinois, 70-68-68 – 206 -10; T2. Alex Ching, San Diego, 69-66-73 – 208 -8; T2. Peter Uihlein, Oklahoma State, 69-68-71 – 208 -8; 4. Diego Velasquez, Oregon State, 71-72-66 – 209 -7; 5. Henrik Norlander, Augusta State, 68-69-73 – 210 -6; T6. John Peterson, LSU, 73-68-70 – 211 -5; T6. John Hahn, Kent State, 72-70-69 – 211 -5; T6. Drew Kittleson, Florida State, 70-70-71 – 211 -5; T6. Gregor Main, UCLA, 71-69-71 – 211 -5; T10. Paul Haley, Georgia Tech, 70-69-73 – 212 -4; T10. Chris Williams, Washington, 72-71-69 – 212 -4; T10. Ben Martin, Clemson, 70-72-70 – 212 -4; T10. Eugene Wong, Oregon, 69-72-71 – 212 -4.
LSU SCORES
T6. John Peterson, 73-68-70 – 211 -5
T72. Andrew Loupe, 75-72-74 – 221 +5
T95. Clayton Rotz, 77-73-74 – 224 +8
T128. Austin Gutgsell, 78-79-72 – 229 +13
T135. Sang Yi, 78-77-75 – 230 +14