Papineau Sidelined Due to Knee Surgery
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (September 16, 2020) – West Virginia University senior golfer Etienne Papineau will have season-ending knee surgery, golf coach Sean Covich announced today.
A native of Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, Papineau holds the school record for lowest tournament total (203) after rounds of 70-68-65 in the 2019 Old Town Collegiate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“Pap has meant everything to our program,” Covich said. “He helped build WVU from the ground up.”
Papineau played in 42 tournaments (second in school history), 123.0 rounds (second in school history), shot 46 rounds of even par or lower (second most in school history) and had a career scoring average of 73.41 (fourth best in school history).
“When I first recruited him out of Quebec in 2014, we had yet to resume competition as a team,” Covich added. “We were starting from scratch and to get a player of his caliber immediately made our program relevant.
“He has been a great golfer for us, a stellar student in the classroom and an amazing teammate. What else can a coach ask for? I know our guys will do everything they can to play well for Pap this season because of how hard he played for them the past four years.”
In the classroom, Papineau was a two-time Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) All-Academic Scholar (2019-20), a three-time Academic All-Big 12 selection (2018-20) and was on the Big 12 Academic All-Rookie Team in 2017. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in May.
“I am extremely grateful to be a Mountaineer, and I will forever be,” Papineau said. “It is unfortunate to be in the situation that I am in right now, but there are worse things happening in the world. I am ready to face it, and I will be back stronger than ever in no time. I know that all of my teammates and coaches will be with me and that gives me even more motivation to give my best. I am thankful to be part of the Mountaineer family!”
The Mountaineers will start their fall campaign on Sept. 28-29 in the Colonial Collegiate Invitational in Fort Worth, Texas. The tournament will only feature Big 12 Conference teams, and it will be used to determine seeding for the Big 12 Match Play Championship a few days later in Hockley, Texas.
