BATON ROUGE — A pair of LSU men’s golf signees have gotten off to a fast start in their summer golf schedules as John Peterson won his first career AJGA title Thursday, while Clayton Rotz has taken the first-round lead at the Sunnehanna Amateur.
Peterson recorded a two-stroke victory at the Fidelity Investments Junior Championship after firing an impressive 54-hole score of 10-under par 206 at Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Texas.
The Fort Worth, Texas, native opened the event with back-to-back rounds of 5-under 67 on Tuesday and Wednesday before closing with an even-par 72 on Thursday to win his first career individual title in an event sponsored by the prestigious American Junior Golf Association.
Peterson, who is the nation’s 59th-ranked junior golfer regardless of class in the latest Polo Junior Golf Rankings, has now earned a whopping six career top-10 finishes while competing as a member of the AJGA. He opened his national junior schedule this year with a fourth-place finish at the AJGA’s PING Junior at The Woodlands in April.
The AJGA is dedicated to the overall growth and development of young men and women who aspire to earn college golf scholarships through competitive junior golf. It features an annual membership of approximately 5,000 junior golfers from 49 states and 25 foreign countries.
Rotz was equally impressive in Thursday’s opening round of the 54th-annual Sunnehanna Amateur Tournament of Champions at Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown, Pa., as he fired a 4-under 66 to sit in a tie atop the leader board with Nathan Smith of Pittsburgh.
The Chambersburg, Pa., native is battling 71 of the nation’s top amateur golfers for this year’s title as he is set to tee off in the second round at 9:20 a.m. CDT on Friday.
The Sunnehanna Amateur was established in 1954 and boasts an impressive list of past champions, including such PGA Tour veterans as Lucas Glover, Allen Doyle, Billy Andrade, Scott Verplank, Brad Faxon, John Cook and Ben Crenshaw. Former LSU All-American Greg Lesher is also a past champion of the event as he won the title in 1987.
The 72-hole championship continues with the second round on Friday followed by Saturday’s third round and a deciding final round on Sunday. Live scoring is provided by Golfstat and can be found on the organization’s official website, www.golfstat.com.