BATON ROUGE – For the first time since the 1987-88 season, three members of the LSU Men’s Golf team have been named All-Americans for their outstanding performance in leading the Tigers on the golf course as LSU’s junior trio of Stewart Jolly, Ben Taylor and Curtis Thompson were named PING All-Americans on Thursday.
Jolly and Thompson have each been recognized as PING All-Americans just two days after they were also named Golfweek All-Americans on Tuesday of this week while Taylor has been honored as an All-American for the first time in the wake of a brilliant debut season with the Tigers in 2013-14.
After being named a Third-Team All-American by Golfweek on Tuesday, Jolly has also been named a PING Third-Team All-American as LSU’s top performer over the course of the 2013-14 season. Taylor and Thompson have both been named among the PING Honorable Mention All-Americans with Thompson earning his second honorable mention honor of the week.
Their selection on Thursday marks just the second time in the history of the LSU Men’s Golf program that three Tiger golfers have earned All-America honors in the same season as David Toms (first team), Greg Lesher (honorable mention) and Fredrik Lindgren (honorable mention) were the first trio to do so following the 1987-88 season.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Jolly finished the season as the No. 29-ranked collegiate player nationally by Golfweek and the No. 30-ranked collegiate player nationally by Golfstat in the final individual rankings this season. Jolly smashed his career-low with a team-leading 71.50 scoring average while appearing in all 12 tournaments with the Tigers in 2013-14. He had a team-leading three top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes on the year, including a win at the Golfweek Conference Challenge held at Spirit Hollow Golf Club in Burlington, Iowa, during the 2013 fall season.
With his performance, Jolly earned a spot on the 10-man Team USA roster that will compete at the 2014 Palmer Cup being held from June 26-28 at Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey, England.
A native of Coral Springs, Florida, Thompson ended his junior campaign as the No. 39-ranked collegiate player nationally by Golfweek and the No. 27-ranked collegiate player nationally by Golfstat. He followed Jolly this season as the team’s second-leading scorer with a career-low 71.78 scoring average while also cracking LSU’s starting lineup in all 12 tournaments during fall and spring. Thompson finished up the year with a pair of top-five finishes and three top-10 finishes on the season.
Taylor, who joined the Tigers this season following two outstanding seasons competing at the NCAA Division II level with Nova Southeastern University, wrapped up his debut campaign with the program as the No. 34-ranked collegiate player nationally by Golfstat and the No. 77-ranked collegiate player nationally by Golfweek.
The England international followed Jolly and Thompson as LSU’s third-leading scorer with a 72.00 scoring average in his eight appearances on the season. Taylor led the Tigers into match play at the NCAA Championship after tying for sixth place as the top Tiger in stroke play qualifying with a 54-hole score of 4-under par 206 to become LSU’s third top-10 individual in the event since 2010.
Taylor enjoyed an outstanding championship season in leading the Tigers as he also broke par at 2-under par 208 to tie for 13th place on the leaderboard in his debut at the SEC Men’s Golf Championships.