Potgieter Named LSWA Player of the Year; Wins First Round Match at British Amateur

LAFAYETTE – The honors continue to roll in for UL golfer Malan Potgieter.

So do the low scores.

The senior from Kirkwood, South Africa, was honored as Player of the Year on the All-Louisiana Collegiate Men's Golf Team announced Wednesday by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, and was named to the All-Louisiana team for the fourth straight year.

Earlier Wednesday, after a record-setting run in stroke play on Monday and Tuesday, Potgieter won his first-round match in the 142nd Amateur Championship (referred to in the U.S. as the British Amateur) to advance to the round of 32 in one of the world's biggest and most prestigious amateur championships.

Potgieter defeated Brandon Robison of the U.S. 2-up in the opening round of match play, after the field of 288 golfers was cut to 64 in two rounds of stroke play.

He will meet England's Morgan Blythe – who ironically played his final collegiate season this spring at Sun Belt Conference rival Georgia Southern – in Thursday's round of 32 at 9 a.m. BST (3 a.m. CDT) at the Royal Liverpool course.

"This tournament is an exact mirror of the U.S. Amateur, and those are probably the top two amateur tournaments in the world," said Ragin' Cajun coach Theo Sliman. "Exemptions to the winner and runner-up are huge into multiple major events including the Masters, so it'll be exciting to continue watching him in his last few events in the amateur ranks."

Potgieter qualified for the match-play event with a notable performance in stroke play. After struggling to an opening-round 76 at the West Lancashire course, he rallied back with a bogey-free nine-under-par 63 at Royal Liverpool to finish at five-under 139 and tying for 14th to easily make the 64-player field.

"I knew I had to play some good golf Tuesday to get into the cut line," Potgieter said. "I started the day five outside the cut, so I had more of an aggressive mentality and gave myself a lot of birdie chances. That was right up there as one of my best rounds ever."

Potgieter hit a driver on the tight 424-yard first hole at Royal Liverpool Tuesday on the way to an opening birdie, the first of nine in a round that included five birdies on the back nine in a 32-31—63 showing that equaled the Royal Liverpool amateur course record.

"I was under some pressure to perform because I really wanted to make the cut," he said. "It's my first time playing The Amateur Championship and I like match play at lot, so I really wanted to keep competing. I decided to hit driver on the first hole and that set the tone for the day of being aggressive. The whole day was just solid."

Match play continues through Saturday's 36-hole final. The winner receives exemptions into the 154th Open Championships at Royal Birkdale next month and next year's U.S. Open along with an invitation to play in the Masters at Augusta next April.

Potgieter's naming as Player of the Year on the All-Louisiana Collegiate team was the first for a Cajun player since Trey Coker in 1993. He was named to the first team along with LSU's Jay Mendell, Matty Dodd-Berry and Dan Hayes and Southeastern Louisiana's David Marsh.

The state Player of the Year honor added to Potgieter's selection last week to the All-America teams announced by Golfweek Magazine and by PING and the Golf Coaches Association of America. He was named to the third team on both of those units as the first-ever UL honoree by Golfweek and the fourth-ever Cajun All-America honoree by the GCAA, joining Mike Heinen, Craig Perks and Coker.

Potgieter was the only Sun Belt player and the only player from Louisiana named to either of those two All-America teams.

"It's kind of bittersweet because this is the last group that awards these honors, so this is his last one as a Cajun," Sliman said. "Any time you can make our all-state team in any capacity is important to our program, and what a fitting compliment to end his career."

Potgieter will actually play one more event as a collegian June 29-July 5 when he is one of 12 members of Team International at the prestigious Arnold Palmer Cup competition at Tralee Golf Links in County Kerry, Ireland. He will be the first Sun Belt player ever to participate in what is commonly called the Ryder Cup of collegiate golf.

The four-time All-Sun Belt pick finished 32nd individually at the NCAA National Championships last month with a 68-68-79—215 score, missing the final round cut by one stroke as the first UL player to make the national field since 1996 and claiming the highest finish for a Cajun player since 1990.

At the NCAA nationals, he continued a streak that is thought to be the longest in collegiate golf history. He had played three straight bogey-free rounds at the NCAA Athens Regional in sharing medalist honors, and had two more rounds without a bogey at the nationals to extend his streak to 93 bogey-free holes. The previous recorded record was 76 by Alabama's Bobby Wyatt in 2014.

Potgieter finished his senior season with three individual wins and a 69.56 season and a 71.29 career stroke average, both UL school records and among 11 season or career marks he added to the Cajun record book this spring.

He also had nine top-four finishes out of 11 team events as a senior and shared the national lead with six top-three finishes along with leading or sharing the team lead in all 11 fall and spring tournaments.

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Potgieter Named LSWA Player of the Year; Wins First Round Match at British Amateur

Players Mentioned

Malan Potgieter

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