LSU Gold

Golfer Jolly Rises in Palmer Cup Rankings

+0
Golfer Jolly Rises in Palmer Cup Rankings

BATON ROUGE – In the wake of his runner-up finish at the Valspar Invitational at Floridian last week, LSU’s junior All-America hopeful Stewart Jolly has continued his climb up the national rankings this spring as he is now the No. 8-ranked golfer for Team USA in the latest Palmer Cup Rankings released Wednesday by the Golf Coaches Association of America.

Jolly is up seven spots from No. 15 to No. 8 this week for Team USA that will compete against Team Europe at the 2014 Palmer Cup to be held June 24-26 at Walton Heath Golf Club near London, England.

The Birmingham, Ala., native has also continued his climb up the NCAA rankings as the No. 12-ranked player in the country by Golfstat and the No. 14-ranked player in the country by Golfweek regardless of nationality.

The Palmer Cup is an annual Ryder Cup style tournament featuring the top American and top European golfers competing at the collegiate level each season.

According to the GCAA’s official statement regarding Palmer Cup selection, the Palmer Cup Ranking is based on Golfstat’s NCAA Player Rankings and awards bonus points for wins and high finishes and negative points for poor finishes. The ranking calculation also contains a strength-of-schedule component.

Jolly has led the way for the Tigers throughout the 2013-14 season as he is the team’s leading scorer with a career-low 71.04 scoring average in his eight tournament appearances this season. That smashes his previous career-best scoring average of 73.55 strokes per round recorded as a sophomore during the 2012-13 season.

Not only that, but Jolly has secured three top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes in his eight appearances this season, including three-straight top-10 finishes this spring with a tie for sixth place at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; an eighth-place finish at the Louisiana Classics in Lafayette; and a second-place finish at the Valspar Invitational at Floridian held in Palm City, Fla., all in the month of March. Jolly has also won one tournament title this season at the Golfweek Conference Challenge at Spirit Hollow Golf Course in Burlington, Iowa, back on Sept. 17.

The top six golfers in the final ranking for both the United States and Europe will automatically be selected among the 10 players for each team competing at the 2014 Palmer Cup.

The remaining four players for the United States will be selected using three committee picks and one coaches pick, while the final four spots for the European team will consist of the champion of The R&A Foundation Scholars Tournament, two committee picks and one coaches pick.

Selections by their respective committees might take into account a number of factors, including their current college season, results in amateur events since the last Palmer Cup, match play record and performance in previous international team events. One of the U.S. committee picks must be a non-Division I golfer, while the European committee may select college golfers competing in either the United States or Europe.

Palmer Cup Ranking (as of April 2, 2014)

Team USA
Player, Class, School
1. Cameron Wilson, Senior, Stanford
2. Robby Shelton, Freshman, Alabama
3. Ollie Schniederjans, Junior, Georgia Tech
4. Joey Garber, Senior, Georgia
5. Wyndham Clark, Sophomore, Oklahoma State
6. Brandon Hagy, Senior, California
7. Bryson Dechambeau, Sophomore, SMU
8. Stewart Jolly, Junior, LSU
9. Bobby Wyatt, Senior, Alabama
10. Jonathan Garrick, Sophomore, UCLA
11. J.T. Poston, Junior, Western Carolina
12. Trey Mullinax, Senior, Alabama
13. Anthony Paolucci, Junior, Southern California
14. Rico Hoey, Freshman, Southern California
15. Roman Robledo, Junior, Houston
16. Brian Campbell, Junior, Illinois
17. Adam Schenk, Senior, Purdue
18. Jack Maguire, Freshman, Florida State
19. Seth Reeves, Senior, Georgia Tech
20. Denny McCarthy, Junior, Virginia
21. Chase Koepka, Sophomore, South Florida
22. Joe Parkinson, Sophomore, BYU
23. Mark Anguiano, Senior, Cal State Fullerton
24. Jordan Niebrugge, Sophomore, Oklahoma State
25. Michael Cromie, Senior, Georgia

Team Europe
Player, Class, School
1. Greg Eason, Senior, Central Florida
2. Joel Stalter, Senior, California
3. Jon Rahm, Sophomore, Arizona State
4. Julien Brun, Junior, TCU
5. Sebastian Cappelen, Senior, Arkansas
6. Erik Oja, Senior, Arizona
7. Ricardo Gouveia, Senior, Central Florida
8. Toni Hakula, Senior, Texas
9. James Ross, Senior, Houston
10. Victor Perez, Junior, New Mexico
11. Paul Dunne, Junior, UAB
12. Matthias Schwab, Freshman, Vanderbilt
13. Pep Angles, Junior, Central Arkansas
14. Lars van Meijel, Freshman, Memphis
15. Thomas Detry, Sophomore, Illinois
16. Grant Forrest, Junior, San Diego
17. Max Rottluff, Sophomore, Arizona State
18. Rowin Caron, Sophomore, Florida State
19. Niclas Carlsson, Senior, Auburn
20. Ben Rusch, Senior, Virginia
21. Gavin Moynihan, Freshman, Alabama
22. Tomasz Anderson, Junior, Jacksonville State
23. Emilio Cuartero, Senior, Missouri
24. Niklas Lindstrom, Senior, Liberty
25. Scott Fernandez, Junior, Iowa State