BATON ROUGE – After blistering Le Triomphe Golf & Country Club with a 72-hole score of 12-under par 272 this past weekend, former LSU Tiger standout Smylie Kaufman took home his first career top-10 finish as a member of the Web.com Tour as he finished two shots off the pace in a tie for fourth place at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by NACHER.
Kaufman opened the tournament Thursday with an even-par round of 71 in the first round, but followed with a 2-under 69 on Friday and back-to-back rounds of 5-under 66 on Saturday and Sunday to earn his first Top 10 in four appearances on the Web.com Tour this season with a final score of 12-under par 272 for the championship.
The Birmingham, Alabama, native closed out the tournament with a bogey-free round of 66 on Sunday afternoon to finish just two shots behind champion Kelly Kraft (270) on the final leaderboard.
Kaufman fired out of the blocks in the final round with a birdie at the par-five first hole before turning at 4-under par for his round with a birdie at the par-five fifth and an eagle at the par-five seventh. He then added a birdie at the par-three 11th hole before cruising to the finish line with a 5-under 66 to secure a top-10 finish by tying for fourth place and take home a check for $20,735 for his performance.
It’s a big step forward for Kaufman in his professional career as he now ranks No. 65 on the official Web.com Tour money list for this season and looks to challenge for a spot in the Top 25 of the money list to receive his PGA TOUR card for the 2015-16 season at the end of this Web.com Tour campaign.
Kaufman was not the only former Tiger standout to star on the professional circuit this past weekend as LSU’s former three-time All-American and 2011 NCAA Champion John Peterson earned his best PGA TOUR finish of the season by tying for 11th place at the Valero Texas Open where he fired a brilliant round of 4-under 68 on Sunday to climb back to even-par for the championship held at the JW Marriott TPC San Antonio.
Peterson, who has now made the cut in 12 of his 13 appearances on the PGA TOUR this season, finished on the cusp of the Top 10 of the leaderboard with his 72-hole score of even-par 288 that also featured his scores of 2-over 74 on Thursday, even-par 72 on Friday and 2-over 74 on Saturday to earn his biggest payday of the season with a check for $136,400 for the weekend.
More importantly, Peterson’s performance at the Valero Texas Open has moved him to No. 53 in the FedEx Cup rankings for the 2014-15 season and up 21 spots to No. 76 on the PGA TOUR Money List with earnings of $525,122 in his 13 appearances this season.