Bulls finish seventh in loaded field of 16 teams
EATONTON, GA., MARCH 22, 2022 – USF junior Albin Bergstrom (Falsterbo, Sweden) posted his seventh top 10 finish in eight events on the year and crept closer to yet another USF record Tuesday at the Linger Longer Invitational at the Great Waters Golf Course in Lake Oconee, Ga.
The Bulls finished seventh in a loaded 16-team field that included five top 25-ranked teams. USF fired a 3-over par total of 867, sandwiching rounds of 286 around a 295 on Monday on the par 72, 7,436-yard course that saw 22 of 89 competitors finish under par.
Tenth-ranked Georgia won the event with a 28-under par total of 836 followed by No. 6 Vanderbilt (840), No. 19 Florida (850), No. 22 Clemson (852), Charlotte (853) and No. 4 North Carolina (865). USF, which entered ranked No. 31, finished ahead of Alabama and Virginia among others.
Defending American Athletic Conference Champion Bergstrom fired rounds of 69, 72 and 70 for a 5-under par total of 211 to finish tied for ninth. Clemson’s Jacob Bridgeman was red-hot, shooting rounds of 67, 66 and 67 to win by six strokes with a 16-under par total of 200.
Bergstrom, who entered the tournament with a No. 4 national ranking and a 69.76 adjusted scoring average on the year, posted three rounds of par or better to bring his career total to 78, just one shy of the USF record of 79 set by current PGA tour member Chase Koepka in 2016. With two regular season events and postseason tournaments remaining, Bergstrom has posted 22 rounds of par or better on the year, just two shy of his program record of 24 set in 2018-19.
Sophomore Run Youprayong (Bangkok, Thailand) posted rounds of 72, 73, 73 to finish T30 with a 2-over par total of 280. Freshman Shubham Jaglan (New Delhi, India) finish T40 after a strong final round 70 which gave him a 5-over par total of 221. Sophomore Sam Nicholson (Atlantic Beach) finished T51 with an 8-over par 224 and Junior Luke Gifford (Boca Raton) finished T57 with a 10-over par total of 226.
NOTABLE
• Junior Albin Bergstrom currently has the Bulls’ best-ever career scoring average (70.29), more than a stroke better than Koepka’s previous mark of 71.53.
• Bergstrom’s 68.95 season scoring average is on pace to break his own USF record of 70.00 set in 2018-19, as is his current national ranking of No. 4, which is seven better than Chase Koepka’s USF record of a No. 11 final season national scorer rating.
• Bergstrom is the highest ranked player in the state of Florida and in the American Athletic Conference.
• Bergstrom has 22 par or better rounds on the year and needs two to break the USF career record for such rounds, currently 79, and tie his own USF season record of 24 set in 2018-19.
• Bergstrom owns USF career records for scoring average (70.45), tournament low round (63, 2019-20), tournament low round to par (-9, 2019-20), tournament low 36-hole total (133, -11, 2018-19), and is second in wins (3) and low 54-hole total (201, -11, 2018-19) and second in par or better rounds (78).
About USF Men’s Golf
USF men’s golf program has captured 17 conference titles, including in 2021, and have seen players earn 19 All-America honors. The Bulls have won five of the last six American Athletic Conference Tournament championships in wire-to-wire fashion, winning four-consecutive from 2015-18. The Bulls have had four individual conference champions, including Albin Bergstrom in 2021, and gone on to earn eight straight NCAA Regionals appearances, including a 6th place finish in NCAA Championship match-play in 2015. USF is led by Steve Bradley, who has been named American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year five times since taking over the program in 2014. The Bulls have posted 20 tournament wins under Bradley entering the 2021-22 season, by far the most under any coach in program history.
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