MSU’s James Piot heading to NCAA Champions and looking to make school history
EAST LANSING, Mich. (BVM) — Just over a year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm causing nearly everything to come to a pause, including sports. Even golf, which is a widely individual sport compared to other sports, had to shut down for a little bit before being one of the first sports to come back in the state of Michigan.
Michigan State’s James Piot, who was a junior at the time, took the opportunity during the difficult time to improve his game by simply hitting balls in his basement. With no golf rounds being played, he was able to work on aspects of his game that he would not necessarily have time to do in a normal season, such as swing mechanics.
“That was kind of a big thing for me,” Piot said in a press conference on May 12. “It helped me move some things on my swing that definitely showed over this past summer.
He started to gain some confidence and that was when the results started to show as he earned the No. 2 seed in the 2020 U.S. Amateur.
“That was a big deal for me,” Piot said. “It showed things were moving in the right direction and it gave me a confidence boost at least as far as moving into this year. It made me hungry to play college golf again.”
Now one year later, Piot will be competing as the lone Spartan in the 2021 NCAA Championships from May 28 through June 2 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Piot earned the honor last week at the NCAA Kingston Springs Regional after shooting five under par across three rounds. That score of 208 was good enough to place Piot as the top individual besides players on teams that finished in the top five (Vanderbilt, Arkansas, San Diego State, NC State, Clemson). The Spartans did not participate in the tournament as a team.
With Piot as the only MSU participant in the regional tournament, he had to adjust to being the center of attention, more so than a typical regular season tournament where the whole team is competing. That meant all eyes from both spectators and coaches went from the entire team to just Piot.
“Everything I do is just under a microscope at this point,” Piot said before the Kingston Springs Regional. “My bad day is going to be amplified a little bit. Good days are going to be better than what they seem.
Not only did he represent the green and white successfully, he also represented the entire state of Michigan and hopes to do so successfully again in Arizona, perhaps with a little bit of a ‘behind enemy lines’ motto.
“One special thing about Michigan State golf is that coach [Casey] Lubahn likes to recruit in-state guys,” Piot said. “So not only do you represent Michigan State but you represent the state of Michigan every time you tee it off and it’s a big deal because we are a close-knit group of guys all from the northern part.”
“For golf that is a rare thing. Most guys are from down south. Most of the better players are from the south so just being someone from the north and up here representing is already a big deal and anything I can do would be special at this point.”
Heading into this weekend, Piot is ranked as the country’s No. 50 golfer at the college level, the fifth–highest ranking in the Big Ten behind a trio of Illinois golfers (Michael Feagles, Adr Dumont De Chassa, Jerry Ji) and Alex Schaake of Iowa. Piot was named to the All-Big Ten First Team at the beginning of May for the second time in his career and was named Big Ten Golfer of the Week twice in 2021 while leading MSU with a 71.3 scoring average.
Piot will be the first Michigan State men’s golf player sent to the NCAA Championships since the team qualified in 2007. You have to go back five more years for the most recent individual qualifier, Eric Jorgensen in 2002.
Taking home first place in Scottsdale certainly will be no easy task, but all it may take is a hot swing all weekend long from Piot for him to become the first Spartan to ever win the individual title.
