University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Potgieter's Historic Season Sets Standard As Cajuns Head To Sun Belt Championships
4/26/2026 5:55:00 PM | Golf
All-Sun Belt standout builds record-setting year as Louisiana eyes conference title run
LAFAYETTE – It's been a season for the history books for UL senior Malan Potgieter, and even that doesn't fully describe how special it has been.
"He's had the best season of any player in program history," Ragin' Cajun golf coach Theo Sliman said this week on the eve of the 2026 Sun Belt Conference Men's Golf Championships. "And that's not just my opinion. Bob Bass said the same thing and he obviously has a lot of experience in this program."
Bass served as UL's coach from 1990-2008, when Sliman took over the post, so that pair has mentored Cajun players for the past 36 seasons – and their families have been around even longer, with Bass' father Bill and Sliman's father Teddy serving as coaches in the long history of the Cajun program.
Their opinions carry a lot of weight, but it's not just opinions. Potgieter has put up the numbers to back up those claims.
The senior from Kirkwood, South Africa, has played in 10 tournaments in his senior season, five in the fall and five in the spring. In eight of those, he's finished in the top four individuals in an unheard-of eight out of 10. His lowest finish all year was a 12th place finish in his most recent event against a national-caliber 75-player field in the prestigious Maridoe Intercollegiate in Carrollton, Texas.
Potgieter had one bad round there, a second-round 78 in wind-blown conditions on likely the most difficult course the Cajuns played all year. All 29 rounds in the rest of his season had seen him score 74 or better, with 20 of those rounds sub-par and four even-par.
That Maridoe event featured four of the nation's top 16 collegiate teams and six players ranked in the national top 50 – all of whom he beat in the tournament's final round when he rallied back with the day's low round, a two-under 70 against that power-packed field.
"His performance that week, and particularly in the last round, was almost more impressive than him defending his title at the Louisiana Classics," Sliman said. "He was on a course he'd ever seen, against competition he hadn't seen a lot, and in conditions that were brutal."
Potgieter was on more familiar turf three weeks earlier when he took individual honors at UL's own 41st annual Louisiana Classics, shooting a 15-under 65-67-69—201 score over the testy Oakbourne Country Club layout to win by three shots. He had become the first Cajun to win medalist honors in Classics history one year earlier when he took the individual title in a playoff, and this March he became the first back-to-back winner in Louisiana Classics history thanks to 20 birdies and only five bogeys in three rounds.
That was one of two wins the senior had during the season, the other coming in the fall opener when he shared the title at the Argent Financial Classic at Squire Creek in Choudrant with a 13-under 203 score. He followed that with a third, a fourth and a third in his next three tournaments, and then started the spring portion of the season with two third-place finishes before winning his second Louisiana Classics title.
Potgieter had warmed up for the spring season in February when he represented his home country in the Africa Amateur Championships, finishing sixth in the continent's premier amateur event. That put him into the top 150 in the World Amateur Golf rankings.
Several months earlier he had qualified for the U.S. Amateur where he again rallied for a three-under 69 in the final round in his first major amateur tournament. That came after he'd earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors and earned his second NCAA Championships outing as the top individual finisher at the NCAA's Tallahassee Regional last spring.
"The U.S. Amateur is probably the most prestigious amateur event in the world, and there were definitely some nerves," Potgieter said. "But that showed me I could play at that level and compete with anyone, and helped my confidence a lot going into the Africa Amateur."
That confidence has shown throughout the season. Potgieter finished the fall with a 68.87 stroke average, and his season-long 69.30 mark is well under UL's listed record for best stroke average. He played each of the first nine events before the Maridoe at four-under-par or better topped by his 15-under 201 at the Classics, and had three bogey-free rounds during the season.
To Sliman, though, his presence with the other members of the UL squad is just as important as all the numbers, especially heading into this week's Sun Belt Conference Championships at Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Miss. It'll be Potgieter's fourth time to play at Annandale for the conference title.
"The thing about Malan, it's not just his physical leadership but it's his verbal leadership," he said. "He's very process oriented in his preparations and he voices that to the younger guys. And what I like most is the younger guys are asking questions from a senior like him. He knows the course and he's doing everything he can to help them get ready."
The Cajuns will be hoping to match their 2023 run when they won the league title and advanced to the NCAA's. Potgieter already has his ticket punched as an individual, courtesy of his No. 35 national ranking, but he and Sliman would love for him to be joined by his teammates.
"He barely missed out on going to nationals last year out of the regional," Sliman said, "so I hope we're all at regionals together this year. That would be a validation of the season he's had. It's hard to be consistent like that, to be at the absolute top of the leaderboard, almost every time. That kind of consistency doesn't come around often."
"He's had the best season of any player in program history," Ragin' Cajun golf coach Theo Sliman said this week on the eve of the 2026 Sun Belt Conference Men's Golf Championships. "And that's not just my opinion. Bob Bass said the same thing and he obviously has a lot of experience in this program."
Bass served as UL's coach from 1990-2008, when Sliman took over the post, so that pair has mentored Cajun players for the past 36 seasons – and their families have been around even longer, with Bass' father Bill and Sliman's father Teddy serving as coaches in the long history of the Cajun program.
Their opinions carry a lot of weight, but it's not just opinions. Potgieter has put up the numbers to back up those claims.
The senior from Kirkwood, South Africa, has played in 10 tournaments in his senior season, five in the fall and five in the spring. In eight of those, he's finished in the top four individuals in an unheard-of eight out of 10. His lowest finish all year was a 12th place finish in his most recent event against a national-caliber 75-player field in the prestigious Maridoe Intercollegiate in Carrollton, Texas.
Potgieter had one bad round there, a second-round 78 in wind-blown conditions on likely the most difficult course the Cajuns played all year. All 29 rounds in the rest of his season had seen him score 74 or better, with 20 of those rounds sub-par and four even-par.
That Maridoe event featured four of the nation's top 16 collegiate teams and six players ranked in the national top 50 – all of whom he beat in the tournament's final round when he rallied back with the day's low round, a two-under 70 against that power-packed field.
"His performance that week, and particularly in the last round, was almost more impressive than him defending his title at the Louisiana Classics," Sliman said. "He was on a course he'd ever seen, against competition he hadn't seen a lot, and in conditions that were brutal."
Potgieter was on more familiar turf three weeks earlier when he took individual honors at UL's own 41st annual Louisiana Classics, shooting a 15-under 65-67-69—201 score over the testy Oakbourne Country Club layout to win by three shots. He had become the first Cajun to win medalist honors in Classics history one year earlier when he took the individual title in a playoff, and this March he became the first back-to-back winner in Louisiana Classics history thanks to 20 birdies and only five bogeys in three rounds.
That was one of two wins the senior had during the season, the other coming in the fall opener when he shared the title at the Argent Financial Classic at Squire Creek in Choudrant with a 13-under 203 score. He followed that with a third, a fourth and a third in his next three tournaments, and then started the spring portion of the season with two third-place finishes before winning his second Louisiana Classics title.
Potgieter had warmed up for the spring season in February when he represented his home country in the Africa Amateur Championships, finishing sixth in the continent's premier amateur event. That put him into the top 150 in the World Amateur Golf rankings.
Several months earlier he had qualified for the U.S. Amateur where he again rallied for a three-under 69 in the final round in his first major amateur tournament. That came after he'd earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors and earned his second NCAA Championships outing as the top individual finisher at the NCAA's Tallahassee Regional last spring.
"The U.S. Amateur is probably the most prestigious amateur event in the world, and there were definitely some nerves," Potgieter said. "But that showed me I could play at that level and compete with anyone, and helped my confidence a lot going into the Africa Amateur."
That confidence has shown throughout the season. Potgieter finished the fall with a 68.87 stroke average, and his season-long 69.30 mark is well under UL's listed record for best stroke average. He played each of the first nine events before the Maridoe at four-under-par or better topped by his 15-under 201 at the Classics, and had three bogey-free rounds during the season.
To Sliman, though, his presence with the other members of the UL squad is just as important as all the numbers, especially heading into this week's Sun Belt Conference Championships at Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Miss. It'll be Potgieter's fourth time to play at Annandale for the conference title.
"The thing about Malan, it's not just his physical leadership but it's his verbal leadership," he said. "He's very process oriented in his preparations and he voices that to the younger guys. And what I like most is the younger guys are asking questions from a senior like him. He knows the course and he's doing everything he can to help them get ready."
The Cajuns will be hoping to match their 2023 run when they won the league title and advanced to the NCAA's. Potgieter already has his ticket punched as an individual, courtesy of his No. 35 national ranking, but he and Sliman would love for him to be joined by his teammates.
"He barely missed out on going to nationals last year out of the regional," Sliman said, "so I hope we're all at regionals together this year. That would be a validation of the season he's had. It's hard to be consistent like that, to be at the absolute top of the leaderboard, almost every time. That kind of consistency doesn't come around often."
Players Mentioned
/ Golf
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