LSU men’s golf coach Chuck Winstead has one goal for his program.
“We need to get better today and then do it again tomorrow,” Winstead said.
So far, the 2010-2011 season has been a culmination of many days of that type of improvement.
Heading into next week’s Southeastern Conference championships, the No. 10 Tigers have won four tournaments this year, the most since Winstead’s own playing days at LSU in the 1988-89 season.
Along with a trio of seniors — John Peterson, Andrew Loupe and Clayton Rotz — Winstead has helped turn LSU from a dormant underachiever into a prominent force in college golf.
Since enrolling at LSU in the fall of 2007, all the seniors have improved their individual scoring averages every year and led the Tigers to three victories in each of the last two seasons.
With the addition of senior transfer Ken Looper this year and quality depth in juniors Austin Gutgsell and Sang Yi, the Tigers have spent the year parked in the top 10 of the polls and in contention at every event.
“We’ve not only won this year, but we’ve been right there playing in the final group and top five in every tournament,” said Peterson, a Fort Worth, Texas, native. “Not many teams can say that.”
But the road to consistent play this year has been anything but easy, according to the players.
“There’s been a lot of growing pains and ups and downs going back to our freshman year,” said Loupe, a Baton Rouge native. “But even with the setbacks, we’ve remained on a steady incline through these four years.”
While Loupe, Peterson and Rotz have been the linchpins of the program’s rebuilding effort, they took vastly different paths to arrive at LSU.
Peterson was one of the top prospects in Texas out of high school and had offers from other big programs but chose LSU because he had experience working with Winstead and liked the challenge of helping restore a program.
“Me, Andrew, Clayton, all these guys, we made the choice to turn this place back into a powerhouse,” Peterson said. “We were ranked around 85th when I signed, and look at us now in the top 10 in every poll.”
Loupe, on the other hand, was an Episcopal High product and had worked with Winstead since he was 9 years old.
Even though he grew up around the program, Loupe’s commitment was not a foregone conclusion because he was one of Louisiana’s most coveted golf prospects. The lure of playing for his hometown team ultimately won out.
“I’m from Baton Rouge and have such a passion for this university and LSU athletics,” Loupe said. “I think there’s something special about this place.”
Rotz is from Chambersburg, a small town in south-central Pennsylvania, and was one of the top 50 junior golfers in the country before he decided to make the journey south to play for LSU.
While the players ultimately have to get it done on the course, both Peterson and Loupe said it was Winstead’s recruiting persistence and coaching acumen that convinced them to attend LSU and spurred their golf games.
Winstead has been one of Golfweek’s top 100 instructors since 2005.
“As players we have absolute trust and confidence in his teaching, and it helps that he’s so passionate about the game and our development,” Loupe said.
While the golf team is the best it has been since the late 1980s, Winstead said he wants to avoid thinking the work is done.
“It’s been gratifying to watch these kids progress and build on our success, but we’re not done yet,” Winstead said.
Peterson and Loupe, who were each named Golfweek All-American Honorable Mentions in 2010, echoed Winstead’s call to finish strong.
“We’ve got four wins this year, but you don’t work hard to win the Gopher Invitational or the Hootie [at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate],” Peterson said. “You play to win championships, so our goal is to get that win total to seven.”
 
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Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected].