BATON ROUGE – A total of five LSU golfers have now qualified for the 2010 United States Amateur Championship after graduating senior Brent Blaum, senior Clayton Rotz and junior Sang Yi joined senior All-American John Peterson and incoming freshman Andrew Presley in this year’s event being held Aug. 23-29 at Chambers Bay Golf Club in Tacoma, Wash.
Peterson and Presley were the first Tigers to earn a spot in the nation’s premier amateur championship by finishing in first place and third place, respectively, in the sectional qualifier held on July 20 at Mira Vista Country Club in their hometown of Fort Worth, Texas.
Yi followed by firing a 6-under par 138 in two rounds at Diamond Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth for a third-place finish in the sectional qualifier held on July 26.
On Monday, Rotz became a U.S. Amateur qualifier for the fourth time in his amateur career by taking top honors at the sectional qualifier held at Blue Ridge Country Club in Harrisburg, Pa. Rotz captured first by three strokes with an impressive score of 5-under 136 in two rounds. No other LSU golfer has qualified in the U.S. Amateur Championship more than two times in his career.
Like Rotz, Blaum qualified for the field on Monday with a third-place finish in the sectional qualifier held at Lake Charles Country Club in Lake Charles, La., after firing a 6-under par 138 in 36 holes.
Two other incoming freshmen will attempt to join their future LSU teammates this year’s field of the U.S. Amateur Championship as Franco Castro of Alpharetta, Ga., and Smylie Kaufman of Birmingham, Ala., are scheduled to compete in sectional qualifiers being held in the coming weeks.