BATON ROUGE – LSU senior golfer Algot Kleen was named Newcomer of the Year by the Southeastern Conference Friday as the league office announced honors for the 2024-25 golf season.
Kleen was also selected First-Team All-SEC. Freshman Arni Sveinsson was named to the Freshman All-SEC team and the All-SEC second team while Jay Mendell earned LSU’s nod for the Community Service Team.
The Tiger golf team left Friday for final preparations for the NCAA Regional that begins Monday in Amherst, Virginia. LSU is the No. 1 seed for the 54-hole event at the Poplar Grove Golf Club.
Kleen, from Fiskebackskil, Sweden, is ranked No. 10 nationally in the NCAA Scoreboard by Clippd performance rankings and is at his highest mark in the World Amateur Golf Rankings at No. 23 which is based on play over the last two years.
Kleen, who came to LSU after All-Southern Conference seasons at East Tennessee State, is averaging a team best 69.90 stroke average for 30 rounds with 66.7 percent of those rounds (20) at par or under. He has an 80.8 percent winning percentage against the field this season. Kleen posted 11 rounds in the 60s.
This season for the Tigers he has one win and three other top five finishes. Highlighting his year was the win in the Visit Knoxville Collegiate in Loudon, Tennessee in which he shot rounds of 66-65-67 for a 12-under total of 198.
Maybe even more impressive was his course record round of 9-under 63 on the last day of The Blessings Collegiate Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Kleen rallied to finish second at 5-under 211, just behind his teammate Arni Sveinsson.
Sveinsson has made the most of his first-year campaign after coming to LSU to play for Coach Jake Amos and the Tigers from Garðabær, Iceland.
Sveinsson checked in with a 33-round stroke average of 70.39 with 25 rounds of par or under with a win and three other top five finishes.
As mentioned, he captured his first collegiate title at The Blessings, posting rounds of 71-67-71 for a 7-under total of 209. He was also second in the Fallen Oak Collegiate Invitational with a final round of 68 to finish at 6-under 210.
Sveinsson is ranked 21st in the NCAA Scoreboard rankings and is at No. 40 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings with three wins over the past two years.
Mendell was involved in several community service events with LSU’s Tiger Life program including the longstanding Tiger BooZar a Halloween program that allows local children the chance to interact with student-athletes. He also participated in Martin Luther King Day community activities with student-athletes and staff and assisted with the Louisiana Key Academy Field Day activities.
The 2025 All-SEC Men’s Golf Awards:
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jackson Koivun, Auburn
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Daniel Bennett, Texas
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Algot Kleen, LSU
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Wells Williams, Vanderbilt
COACH OF THE YEAR
Nick Clinard, Auburn
FIRST TEAM ALL-SEC
Jackson Koivun, Auburn (SEC Championship Individual Medalist)
Michael La Sasso, Ole Miss
Jase Summy, Oklahoma
Ian Gilligan, Florida
Algot Kleen, LSU
Daniel Bennett, Texas
Brendan Valdes, Auburn
Christiaan Maas, Texas
Phichaksn Maichon, Texas A&M
SECOND TEAM ALL-SEC
Carson Bacha, Auburn
Josiah Gilbert, Auburn
Drew Goodman, Oklahoma
Tommy Morrison, Texas
Jackson Van Paris, Vanderbilt
Arni Sveinsson, LSU
Tom Fischer, Ole Miss
Jack Turner, Florida
Wells Williams, Vanderbilt
Buck Brumlow, Georgia
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Daniel Bennett, Texas
Arni Sveinsson, LSU
Wheaton Ennis, Texas A&M
Billy Davis, Auburn
Zack Swanwick, Florida
Trent Mierl, Missouri
COMMUNITY SERVICE TEAM
Jay Mendell, LSU