BATON ROUGE – As the No. 9-ranked LSU men’s golf team competes this week at the 2011 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships, the squad’s senior trio of John Peterson, Ken Looper and Andrew Loupe picked up PING All-Southeast Region honors on Wednesday morning.
Peterson has earned PING All-Southeast Region accolades for the third-straight season following picks in 2009 and 2010, while Loupe has been honored for the second-straight season and Looper has received his first career selection to the PING All-Southeast Region Team.
The trio has led the Tigers all season long as LSU is competing in the finals of the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row as the No. 10 overall seed in the 30-team field.
In what has already become one of the most prolific careers as a member of the LSU men’s golf program, Peterson has taken his game to yet another level during his senior season in 2010-11 as he leads the squad with a career-low 71.6 scoring average, which includes a career-high eight Top 10 and 11 Top 20 finishes in 12 tournament starts. He has also finished among the Top 5 of the leaderboard three times this year.
Perhaps Peterson’s most impressive performance to date came at the SEC Championships when he earned a conference runner-up finish after falling to Florida’s Andres Echavarria in a one-hole, sudden-death playoff for the individual crown. They tied one another at 1-under par for 54 holes for the championship.
Loupe is well on his way to earning All-America honors for the second year in a row as he follows behind Peterson with a career-low 71.8 scoring average in 12 tournament appearances this season.
Loupe has finished among the top five of the leaderboard a team-high four times during his senior season, while also adding a career-high seven Top 10 and 10 Top 20 finishes on the campaign. Before finishing in a tie for sixth place overall at the SEC Championships, Loupe nearly captured the individual crown with a playoff loss at the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate when leading LSU to the team title.
Looper has enjoyed a tremendous season after transferring to LSU for his senior season in the wake of his three years at the University of New Orleans. In nine tournaments in 2010-11 he has posted a 73.1 scoring average while earning four Top 10 and six Top 20 finishes.
2011 PING All-Southeast Region Team
Connor Arendell, Central Florida
Blayne Barber, Auburn
Niclas Carlsson, Auburn
Bud Cauley, Alabama
Phillip Choi, Florida
Andres Echavarria, Florida
Harris English, Georgia
Hunter Hamrick, Alabama
Michael Hebert, Auburn
Russell Henley, Georgia
Jeff Karlsson, Kennesaw State
Drew Kittleson, Florida State
Brooks Koepka, Florida State
Ken Looper, LSU
Andrew Loupe, LSU
Jason Millard, Middle Tennessee State
Matt Nagy, Kennesaw State
Henrik Norlander, Augusta State
John Peterson, LSU
Jonathan Randolph, Ole Miss
Patrick Reed, Augusta State
Hudson Swafford, Georgia
Bank Vongvanij, Florida
Cory Whitsett, Alabama
Robin Wingardh, Tennessee
Bobby Wyatt, Alabama