What a difference a year makes.
This appears to be the case for the Tigers’ sophomores over the last five seasons, as they morph from mediocre freshmen into dominant golfers in their second year of play.
The most recent example of this phenomenon has taken place this season, as sophomores Stewart Jolly, Curtis Thompson and Myles Lewis have all performed well in their first three tournaments.
To say they have improved from last season would be an understatement.
Jolly, Thompson and Lewis combined to shoot under par for a tournament twice as freshmen. They’ve already shot below par four times this season, including a shared individual title from Jolly and Thompson during the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate in September.
This type of improvement isn’t unheard of for men’s golf, though.
“We have seen this type of trend in the past,” said LSU coach Chuck Winstead. “We have a way that we go about developing our players. The ones that really work hard on the areas that we define for them have been able to see a nice increase in their ability and thus a lower scoring average.”
Looking back at the previous five seasons, several players improved immensely from their first to second years.
Before Jolly, Thompson and Lewis made the jump, current junior Andrew Presley experienced a similar pattern of improved scores during his sophomore season.
Presley shot under par once during his freshman campaign, and his scoring average of 74.1 left room to improve. In his second year, he lowered his average to 72.5, shot under par four times, compiled three top-five finishes and was a Second-Team All-SEC player.
Prior to Presley, John Peterson saw his performance skyrocket during his sophomore season in 2008.
Peterson shot under par once as a freshman, but he ended his second year with four performances where he shot under par, with five top-five finishes and as the first Tiger since 2003 to earn All-American status.
Former Tigers Sang Yi and Andrew Loupe both saw their scoring averages decrease to 73.7 from 74.3 and 74.1, respectively during their second seasons before going on to become First-Team All-SEC members later in their careers.
What makes Jolly, Thompson and Lewis so intriguing is that they’re undergoing such a progression at the same time.
Winstead said he believes in his talented second-year players, but he attributed two of the sophomores’ success to being better mentally prepared on the course.
“Stewart has made his biggest improvement in his ability to handle disappointment, which you have a lot of in golf,” Winstead said. “It has helped him stay in the moment and continue to play well.”
The same goes for Thompson.
“The No. 1 thing for Curtis to continue to improve is to not put such big expectations on himself, so when he falls short of his goal, he doesn’t beat himself up,” Winstead said. “He’s made baby steps along the way, and we’ve seen him grow exponentially.”
