08john Peterson: ncaa chaMPion
with nine holes left as an lsu tiger, John peterson had one
thought: i’m not going out like this. a pair of bogeys and a
double on the front side at karsten creek gc during the
morning wave of the ncaa championship’s final round had
seemingly derailed the senior’s medalist hopes. of course,
the front-nine 42 he shot in the opening round had seemed
to do the same thing, but peterson rallied with five birdies to
finish with a 74, then followed it up with a course-record 65
to take the 36-hole lead. the fort worth native proceeded
to birdie the 11th, 14th, 17th and 18th holes to post a third-round 72, and waited to see if anyone could catch his five-under 211. six hours later, the answer was no, though ucla’s
patrick cantlay came close, falling one stroke short when
his eagle putt on the last green just missed. peterson joined
women’s champ austin ernst to make lsu the first school to
have medalists in both championships in the same season.
he can thank a hot putter for his victory, holing not just the
birdie putts in the final round but a handful of par saves
inside 12 feet. the irony, said lsu coach chuck winstead, is
that peterson “was probably the worst putter i’d ever seen
his freshman year. but he’s hit thousands of putts to get
better, and when he needed it the most the last two hours of
his career, they went right in the center.” with that, peterson
goes out an ncaa champion. —Ryan Herrington
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