Sophomore Albin Bergstrom shoots a 2-under 69 in the final round to earn co-champion status at 6-under overall.
USF men’s golf places third in its second event of the fall season with a lineup that featured three sophomores and two freshmen.
LAKE FOREST, ILL., SEPT. 17, 2019 – Albin Bergstrom carded his second consecutive under-par score to earn co-medalist honors while USF men’s golf placed third at the Windon Memorial Classic on Tuesday.
Bergstrom followed up his 5-under 66 in the second round with a 69 and tied for first with Marquette’s Hunter Eichhorn at 6-under overall. The sophomore from Ljunghusen, Sweden moved up three spots on the leaderboard in the final round after collecting birdies on his final two holes.
Bergstrom is now tied for third in program history with two title victories and he’s two shy of the career wins record set by Chase Koepka (2012-16). What made his latest win extra impressive was Bergstrom’s ability to battle through a shoulder injury that held him out of practices leading up to the tournament’s practice round. Bergstrom wound up shooting par or better on 47 holes and tied for the tournament lead with 14 total birdies.
USF skyrocketed eight spots up the leaderboard in Monday’s second round with a 12-under 272 team score and remained in third place with a 1-over final score. Notre Dame (-10) captured the team title at a tournament that featured five programs receiving votes in the DI Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Preseason Poll.
Luke Gifford also played solid golf for the Bulls, finishing in a tie for 13th place with an even-par 213 at Conway Farms Golf Club (par 71, 7,233 yards). The sophomore from Boca Raton, Fla., now has seven top-25 finishes as a Bull.
USF Lineup Scores
| 3 | South Florida | 292 | 272 | 289 | 853 |
| T1 | Albin Bergstrom (2) | 72 | 66 | 69 | 207 |
| T13 | Luke Gifford (3) | 70 | 71 | 72 | 213 |
| T30 | Run Youprayong (4) | 74 | 69 | 74 | 217 |
| T35 | Sam Nicholson (5) | 76 | 69 | 74 | 219 |
| T72 | Massimo Mbetse (1) | 85 | 68 | 80 | 233 |
Quotable
Head coach Steve Bradley on Albin Bergstrom’s impressive performance that earned the sophomore co-medalist honors:
“It proves in golf you just never know what anybody else is doing. For Albin to sneak in there and birdie his last two holes to get the win was awesome. He battled an injury and played really poorly in the last event at The Farm. He did not practice at all during the week and the only time he actually played golf was during the practice round. We kind of handled him with kid gloves for about seven days, so for him to be able to come out and put on a performance shows you if you don’t have any expectations and you just go out and react, certainly good things can happen. He played great, he stayed patient and he did a good job.”
Bradley on USF’s third-place finish at the event with a young lineup:
“Obviously, you want to have a chance to win and we didn’t put ourselves in that situation today. But we started three sophomores and two freshmen, so it was a chance for all those guys to feel those nerves again and hopefully we learn something from it. We would have loved to have won, but all in all it wasn’t a bad event. It was especially a good bounce-back after last week.”
Notables
- Windon Memorial Classic co-medalist Albin Bergstrom is now two title victories away from matching the USF record of four career wins currently held by Chase Koepka (2012-16). Bergstrom won his first tournament as a freshman at the Fort Lauderdale Intercollegiate on March 5, 2019.
- Bergstrom tied for first in the Windon Memorial Classic field with 14 total birdies after collecting four in the final round. The sophomore from Ljunghusen, Sweden shot par or better on 47 total holes, tied for the best par-5 scoring average (4.44, -5) and finished second in par-3 scoring (2.67, -4).
- USF finished second in the 14-team field in par-3 scoring (3.02), third in total birdies (50) and fourth in par-5 scoring (4.73, -12).
Up Next
USF will travel to Hartford, Wisc., for the Marquette Intercollegiate that takes place Oct. 6-8 at Erin Hills Golf Course.
About USF Men’s Golf
USF men’s golf captured four consecutive American Athletic Conference Championship titles in wire-to-wire fashion prior to 2019 and has earned seven straight trips to NCAA Regionals. The program is led by Steve Bradley, who has been named American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year four times. Follow @USFMGolf on Twitter for the latest information concerning the program.
