Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Feature | 2024 Men’s Golf Senior Class built on work ethic, leadership, and teamwork
05/31/2024 | 12:43:00 | Men's Golf
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The 2024 men's golf class of Peyton Thevenot, Hugo Archer, Justin Wingerter, and Andrew Thornton left their legacy on their teammates, the program, and the Carbondale community. The four seniors contributed to winning the MVC Tournament Championship under the tutelage of head coach Justin Fetcho, and it was the second Valley title in three years for the program. Fetcho believed that the values this graduating class brought to the team aside from their swings on the course were integral to winning golf, and he made it a point to let them know it whenever he had the chance.
"I think if you look at this particular group here, I think that they brought strong leadership both on and off the course…from team chemistry to the team hanging out to them being kind of involved in team meetings and team talks. I think they did an excellent job," Fetcho said. "And I tried to share with each and every one of them too. While they all weren't there on the last screen of the last day of the season, I do think that they all played a very, very important part of our success this year."
Wingerter seemingly embodied this mindset the most. The 6'0 Kansas City, Kansas native came to SIU with a case full of accolades before he played in a collegiate tournament. He was a KC Junior Champion, Kansas City Boys Player of the Year, the youngest to ever qualify for the Watson Challenge, and the youngest to ever win the KC Masters. Golf was a sport Wingerter was drawn to since he was a toddler.
"Ever since I was a little kid, like two, three years old, my parents always said that I just started swinging stuff like they're golf clubs. So they got me Little Tykes clubs and then I just swung those, hit them around the house," he said. "Then as I kept doing it, as I got like four or five, they got me some real clubs, just like little, tiny ones that I hit in the backyard, and then it was just kind of a natural process."
He decided to become a Saluki because he believed it was the best environment to fulfill his dream of playing golf professionally. Wingerter's success continued during his freshman season as a Saluki, winning MVC Newcomer of the Year and being named to the All-Conference team. He says these accomplishments gave him takeaways about life.
"It taught me a lot about life, not even in the way that you thought it would have because I obviously worked really hard and you expect winning to solve all of your problems…," Wingerter shared. "But I guess winning a couple days later, I'd done everything I wanted to from a golf standpoint, I'd achieved all my goals and I still have the same problems. So it made me re-frame my perspective on life and helped me figure out how to actually overcome the problems in front of me."
He went through his ups and downs over the next season or so before breaking out of it in March 2023 during a tournament in South Carolina where he shot under-par, a 71, for the first time in a while. Fetcho believes it took the weight off of his shoulders going forward.
"He had been struggling and yet, he was working so hard, putting in so much time, so much energy, so much effort, and he just was not able to see the results. And I think he was just pushing so hard for it…and that was his first time being able to do that in so, so long and I know it had to feel so, so good for him just to be able to do that in a tournament setting," Fetcho said.
Wingerter shared his feelings after getting over the hump in that moment, "That tournament at Myrtle Beach, it was the light at the end of the tunnel, I guess. It showed light where for about a year, it had been pretty dark, so that was pretty good for me."
His work ethic also stood out to those around him, as it helped set the standard that men's golf strives towards.
"He's always the guy you saw at the golf course, he was always the guy that was down in the weight room putting in the extra work, getting an extra workout in or getting on the Versa machine or go into the cold tub afterwards and then guys start to pick up on that and then they want to know what he's doing," Fetcho said. "…I know he loves our team meetings, just with his passion and what his goals were, and what he wanted to see this team accomplish…this guy was there trying to lead the charge every time."
Thevenot shared the same sentiment, "Justin, he is the man. He is the hardest-working dude. He was like my number one motivator…I've even told Justin I admire him as a human, I tried to be more like him every day."
Wingerter says his eyes were opened to the value of working toward a common goal with a team and the created relationships that follow.
"I think my whole life, I've always worked hard. I've always just wanted to win, and I've always wanted everyone around me to win too. And as time went on, I think I just started to realize life isn't really just about yourself. Especially when you have a team, you're lucky to have a team and having teammates is probably as good as having brothers, like it's almost a family and just trying to help guys achieve all their goals and having us achieve a goal as a team," he said. "It's something you can seriously bond over, and I value that more than anything, so just whatever I could do to help the team, I would."
After double majoring in business management and Spanish, Wingerter has recently started a position where he is trading wheat commodities for 'The Andersons Trade Group'.
Peyton Thevenot played several different sports during his childhood in Utah including football, basketball, and baseball. Golf was something he did occasionally during the summer months with his grandfather, where he eventually became very talented.
"Golf was kind of something I just did with my grampy. But just like over the summers, while my parents were working, he would just pick me up, we'd go hit balls, mess around. So it was kind of just like a fun thing until high school," he said.
Basketball was his primary sport, as he holds the all-time three-point records in a season and career for Stansbury Park High School. But Thevenot says he got tired of it, so he turned to golf. Each year in high school, he qualified for the state championships and received All-State honors while winning 10 tournaments. His results in golf were enough to earn a scholarship offer from John A. Logan College, where he attended and refined his skills as a golfer. The environment in junior college allowed Thevenot to relax, which he believed did wonders for his performance.
"When I first got to John A., golf was kind of just something I was still figuring out…so I kind of just went in there, like free will, just playing for fun. I think I didn't have a lot of pressure on me to make it to a Division One. So that kind of made it easier to just go out and play golf and enjoy it. It also helped me play a lot better, I feel," Thevenot said.
The proximity of the Carbondale campus to John A. Logan made an easy decision for Thevenot when transferring, and he recounted the preceding events to becoming a Saluki at the tournament at the Kokopelli Golf Club.
"I played well at Kokopelli, a couple of the SIU dudes were playing as individuals in this tournament, and I think I ended up taking third and one of the dudes who won, he was actually our assistant coach the last two years…that kind of got me the offer there," Thevenot recalled. "Then took a visit to SIU and already being 1500 miles from home, it definitely helped me just kind of stay within the southern Illinois area because I was familiar with it, I already knew people around there. And SIU's awesome, all the facilities. So it was kind of a no brainer for me when it came to where I was going to transfer."
Upon transferring, Thevenot recognized the different levels of competition and accepted his role of not playing as frequently in tournaments while also working even harder at improving his golf game.
"Then I go into SIU and there was dudes that were straight up just better than me at golf. I kind of had to learn the role of doing the dirty work, trying to bring people together, like trying to keep the team morale high," he said. "As much as I would rather have been playing as much as they were, I think, doing that definitely served a pretty big impact…still putting in that hard work. I mean, working hard in the gym every time, being the first one there."
Thevenot admits he was out of shape in the second half of his junior season and after a talk with Fetcho, he set goals to not only be better for himself but the team also. He made this a focus even though he wasn't competing in every tournament.
"I knew maybe my golf game wasn't up to par to post the scores I wanted to, but I needed to show the boys…that I could lose weight, get in shape, do all that," Thevenot said. "Like just to keep showing the guys that I'm truly invested as much as they are even though I might not be traveling to every tournament. Even when I'm back home, I'm still taking care of business doing what we're supposed to do, hold myself to the standard that we all are aspiring to be at."
Thevenot will finish his bachelor's degree this December in sports administration before entering grad school and becoming a graduate assistant to the SIU women's basketball team.
Andrew Thornton is one of the two international seniors from this class, hailing from Scotland where he was a top-50 ranked amateur player. Like his peers, he played multiple sports as a child including soccer and rugby before deciding to pursue golf seriously upon becoming a teenager. He practiced frequently before entering the Scottish Academy. He had peaks and valleys creating uncertainty on if he would come to America to continue, but he eventually found his way.
"It was like the only thing I did outside of being in school, just practice every day, all the time, and play events in the summers…and I wasn't gonna go to America but then my last year of high school in 2018, I started playing good. So then I got into the national squads," Thornton recalled. "So I kind of decided to take a year out and explore my options of what I could do in America. And then I had an actual year of junior golf left, so I just took a year out and did that and then started speaking to coach (Fetcho) and then came to SIU."
Thornton says he liked everything that Fetcho said in their talks and also was drawn to the competitive schedule that SIU played. During his tenure as a Saluki, he went through a rough patch where he wasn't playing up to his expectations. He didn't play as much and watched the team win the MVC Tournament in 2022. Although he was happy for his teammates, it admittedly didn't feel as special for Thornton because he didn't contribute.
"I played my third year, I didn't do anything at all, had a really bad, like, two years. And then I was kind of like okay, I might want to take my fifth year now because I haven't done anything I wanted to," he said. "So then coach came back for my senior year, and I asked him if I could do my fifth year. Obviously we won the conference, but I wasn't on the team, I didn't really do much that year. So it was a bittersweet feeling, it was fun to win it with the team, but as selfish as it sounds, it's a selfish sport. So I wanted to win one myself with being in the team."
Fetcho added more on the discussion they had through his lens, "I think he had probably not lived up to the expectations that he thought for himself. He thought there was more left in the tank… he was very adamant about 'Coach, I want to use this fifth year, because I want to leave college on a high note, and I know that there's more in the tank for me and I know that I can do a lot'."
It paid off as Thornton put together his best season at SIU as he stroked his best average (73.6), played his most rounds in a season, contributed to winning the MVC tournament, and competed in the NCAA Postseason. Fetcho feels great for Thornton that he was able to complete the goals that he wanted.
"I think all the things that he said that he wanted to do, heading into his fifth year, he checked a lot of boxes of things that he wanted to accomplish and I'm so thankful that one, he chose to come here in the first place, but then that we did find a way for him to stay for that fifth year for him to be able to do those things that he said that he was capable of…" he said.
Thevenot talked about his teammate and former roommate, "A great guy from Scotland, I actually lived with him for a full year and he's awesome. He's a pretty quiet dude most of the time, but he's fun on and off the golf course, great teammate, always willing to stick up for you."
After graduating with a mechanical engineering degree, Thornton has a job lined up back in Scotland that he will begin soon.
Scotland isn't too far from France where Hugo Archer played boxing, tennis, and soccer along with golf during his childhood. He came to America and attended the University of Kentucky where he played in SEC tournaments before transferring to Southern for his junior and senior seasons. Fetcho says that Archer's decision to come to Carbondale was based on wanting to have a clean slate and also the winning values he noticed in the men's golf program at SIU.
"He was just looking for a fresh start…had experience and had all those intangibles that you would look for and kind of liked what we had to offer here at Southern Illinois, just from a player development standpoint, a coaching mentality," Fetcho said. "And he's been able to walk in here from day one and I think he's brought a different perspective, obviously coming from a different place and being able to kind of talk to the team just about the differences in cultures at different programs."
Even though Archer came from an SEC school, he continued to put his head down and work on his craft, and it was recognized and appreciated by his teammates. Thevenot terms him as a bulldog and spoke on Archer's ability to put his head down, work out in the gym, and take care of his business.
"He works hard, he does. He loves the game and I appreciated how he came to SIU from an SEC school and didn't have a big ego about it, ever really mentioned, he was just ready to do the dirty work right as he got on campus and that to me was pretty admirable as well," he said.
Archer and Thornton also lived with each other, during their freshman years. With both of them coming from across the pond, it created an opportunity for them to relate, along with their competitive natures.
"We just kind of hit off straight away. We're really good friends, still are, we lived together this year. So he was fun to be around on and off the golf course," Thornton shared.
Archer didn't miss a tournament in his first season as a Dawg and played in most of the team's tournaments during his senior season. He shot a career-low 65 in his junior year and finished in the top 10 during the MVC Tournament in 2024. He was a key contributor to the team's success and Fetcho values the attitude that Archer brought to everything he was involved in.
"I think what I've liked about him is he's brought hard work, he's brought an intensity, he's brought just a tough mentality, and that's from golf course, weight room, academics," he said. "He has done everything that we've asked him to do as a student-athlete and you know, I really am thankful that he chose to be a Saluki two years ago."
There are a lot of similarities between these four seniors, but each brought their unique values to the men's golf program and has set legacies for those that will come after them. They share a bond and have created long-lasting relationships while competing with each other at SIU.
"Just a good class to be a part of. I was very happy to be part of it. Like they've all taught me valuable things that I'll carry on forever," Thevenot said.
Wingerter expanded on their comradery, "All of us, like we work together, and we immensely cared for each other, and we had a lot of respect for each other and just anytime we could work together to try and be good leaders or try and set the standards or do anything to help the team. I think we were all pretty united in our efforts and we all were ready to work with each other and work with the team as a group."
Thornton continued on the competitive nature between them all, "We're just really good at when we're on the golf course, kind of wanting to grab each other's throats I guess, and then off the golf course, it's just like a switch flip somewhere back to being like best friends pretty much."
"I think if you look at this particular group here, I think that they brought strong leadership both on and off the course…from team chemistry to the team hanging out to them being kind of involved in team meetings and team talks. I think they did an excellent job," Fetcho said. "And I tried to share with each and every one of them too. While they all weren't there on the last screen of the last day of the season, I do think that they all played a very, very important part of our success this year."
Wingerter seemingly embodied this mindset the most. The 6'0 Kansas City, Kansas native came to SIU with a case full of accolades before he played in a collegiate tournament. He was a KC Junior Champion, Kansas City Boys Player of the Year, the youngest to ever qualify for the Watson Challenge, and the youngest to ever win the KC Masters. Golf was a sport Wingerter was drawn to since he was a toddler.
"Ever since I was a little kid, like two, three years old, my parents always said that I just started swinging stuff like they're golf clubs. So they got me Little Tykes clubs and then I just swung those, hit them around the house," he said. "Then as I kept doing it, as I got like four or five, they got me some real clubs, just like little, tiny ones that I hit in the backyard, and then it was just kind of a natural process."
He decided to become a Saluki because he believed it was the best environment to fulfill his dream of playing golf professionally. Wingerter's success continued during his freshman season as a Saluki, winning MVC Newcomer of the Year and being named to the All-Conference team. He says these accomplishments gave him takeaways about life.
"It taught me a lot about life, not even in the way that you thought it would have because I obviously worked really hard and you expect winning to solve all of your problems…," Wingerter shared. "But I guess winning a couple days later, I'd done everything I wanted to from a golf standpoint, I'd achieved all my goals and I still have the same problems. So it made me re-frame my perspective on life and helped me figure out how to actually overcome the problems in front of me."
He went through his ups and downs over the next season or so before breaking out of it in March 2023 during a tournament in South Carolina where he shot under-par, a 71, for the first time in a while. Fetcho believes it took the weight off of his shoulders going forward.
"He had been struggling and yet, he was working so hard, putting in so much time, so much energy, so much effort, and he just was not able to see the results. And I think he was just pushing so hard for it…and that was his first time being able to do that in so, so long and I know it had to feel so, so good for him just to be able to do that in a tournament setting," Fetcho said.
Wingerter shared his feelings after getting over the hump in that moment, "That tournament at Myrtle Beach, it was the light at the end of the tunnel, I guess. It showed light where for about a year, it had been pretty dark, so that was pretty good for me."
His work ethic also stood out to those around him, as it helped set the standard that men's golf strives towards.
"He's always the guy you saw at the golf course, he was always the guy that was down in the weight room putting in the extra work, getting an extra workout in or getting on the Versa machine or go into the cold tub afterwards and then guys start to pick up on that and then they want to know what he's doing," Fetcho said. "…I know he loves our team meetings, just with his passion and what his goals were, and what he wanted to see this team accomplish…this guy was there trying to lead the charge every time."
Thevenot shared the same sentiment, "Justin, he is the man. He is the hardest-working dude. He was like my number one motivator…I've even told Justin I admire him as a human, I tried to be more like him every day."
Wingerter says his eyes were opened to the value of working toward a common goal with a team and the created relationships that follow.
"I think my whole life, I've always worked hard. I've always just wanted to win, and I've always wanted everyone around me to win too. And as time went on, I think I just started to realize life isn't really just about yourself. Especially when you have a team, you're lucky to have a team and having teammates is probably as good as having brothers, like it's almost a family and just trying to help guys achieve all their goals and having us achieve a goal as a team," he said. "It's something you can seriously bond over, and I value that more than anything, so just whatever I could do to help the team, I would."
After double majoring in business management and Spanish, Wingerter has recently started a position where he is trading wheat commodities for 'The Andersons Trade Group'.
Peyton Thevenot played several different sports during his childhood in Utah including football, basketball, and baseball. Golf was something he did occasionally during the summer months with his grandfather, where he eventually became very talented.
"Golf was kind of something I just did with my grampy. But just like over the summers, while my parents were working, he would just pick me up, we'd go hit balls, mess around. So it was kind of just like a fun thing until high school," he said.
Basketball was his primary sport, as he holds the all-time three-point records in a season and career for Stansbury Park High School. But Thevenot says he got tired of it, so he turned to golf. Each year in high school, he qualified for the state championships and received All-State honors while winning 10 tournaments. His results in golf were enough to earn a scholarship offer from John A. Logan College, where he attended and refined his skills as a golfer. The environment in junior college allowed Thevenot to relax, which he believed did wonders for his performance.
"When I first got to John A., golf was kind of just something I was still figuring out…so I kind of just went in there, like free will, just playing for fun. I think I didn't have a lot of pressure on me to make it to a Division One. So that kind of made it easier to just go out and play golf and enjoy it. It also helped me play a lot better, I feel," Thevenot said.
The proximity of the Carbondale campus to John A. Logan made an easy decision for Thevenot when transferring, and he recounted the preceding events to becoming a Saluki at the tournament at the Kokopelli Golf Club.
"I played well at Kokopelli, a couple of the SIU dudes were playing as individuals in this tournament, and I think I ended up taking third and one of the dudes who won, he was actually our assistant coach the last two years…that kind of got me the offer there," Thevenot recalled. "Then took a visit to SIU and already being 1500 miles from home, it definitely helped me just kind of stay within the southern Illinois area because I was familiar with it, I already knew people around there. And SIU's awesome, all the facilities. So it was kind of a no brainer for me when it came to where I was going to transfer."
Upon transferring, Thevenot recognized the different levels of competition and accepted his role of not playing as frequently in tournaments while also working even harder at improving his golf game.
"Then I go into SIU and there was dudes that were straight up just better than me at golf. I kind of had to learn the role of doing the dirty work, trying to bring people together, like trying to keep the team morale high," he said. "As much as I would rather have been playing as much as they were, I think, doing that definitely served a pretty big impact…still putting in that hard work. I mean, working hard in the gym every time, being the first one there."
Thevenot admits he was out of shape in the second half of his junior season and after a talk with Fetcho, he set goals to not only be better for himself but the team also. He made this a focus even though he wasn't competing in every tournament.
"I knew maybe my golf game wasn't up to par to post the scores I wanted to, but I needed to show the boys…that I could lose weight, get in shape, do all that," Thevenot said. "Like just to keep showing the guys that I'm truly invested as much as they are even though I might not be traveling to every tournament. Even when I'm back home, I'm still taking care of business doing what we're supposed to do, hold myself to the standard that we all are aspiring to be at."
Thevenot will finish his bachelor's degree this December in sports administration before entering grad school and becoming a graduate assistant to the SIU women's basketball team.
Andrew Thornton is one of the two international seniors from this class, hailing from Scotland where he was a top-50 ranked amateur player. Like his peers, he played multiple sports as a child including soccer and rugby before deciding to pursue golf seriously upon becoming a teenager. He practiced frequently before entering the Scottish Academy. He had peaks and valleys creating uncertainty on if he would come to America to continue, but he eventually found his way.
"It was like the only thing I did outside of being in school, just practice every day, all the time, and play events in the summers…and I wasn't gonna go to America but then my last year of high school in 2018, I started playing good. So then I got into the national squads," Thornton recalled. "So I kind of decided to take a year out and explore my options of what I could do in America. And then I had an actual year of junior golf left, so I just took a year out and did that and then started speaking to coach (Fetcho) and then came to SIU."
Thornton says he liked everything that Fetcho said in their talks and also was drawn to the competitive schedule that SIU played. During his tenure as a Saluki, he went through a rough patch where he wasn't playing up to his expectations. He didn't play as much and watched the team win the MVC Tournament in 2022. Although he was happy for his teammates, it admittedly didn't feel as special for Thornton because he didn't contribute.
"I played my third year, I didn't do anything at all, had a really bad, like, two years. And then I was kind of like okay, I might want to take my fifth year now because I haven't done anything I wanted to," he said. "So then coach came back for my senior year, and I asked him if I could do my fifth year. Obviously we won the conference, but I wasn't on the team, I didn't really do much that year. So it was a bittersweet feeling, it was fun to win it with the team, but as selfish as it sounds, it's a selfish sport. So I wanted to win one myself with being in the team."
Fetcho added more on the discussion they had through his lens, "I think he had probably not lived up to the expectations that he thought for himself. He thought there was more left in the tank… he was very adamant about 'Coach, I want to use this fifth year, because I want to leave college on a high note, and I know that there's more in the tank for me and I know that I can do a lot'."
It paid off as Thornton put together his best season at SIU as he stroked his best average (73.6), played his most rounds in a season, contributed to winning the MVC tournament, and competed in the NCAA Postseason. Fetcho feels great for Thornton that he was able to complete the goals that he wanted.
"I think all the things that he said that he wanted to do, heading into his fifth year, he checked a lot of boxes of things that he wanted to accomplish and I'm so thankful that one, he chose to come here in the first place, but then that we did find a way for him to stay for that fifth year for him to be able to do those things that he said that he was capable of…" he said.
Thevenot talked about his teammate and former roommate, "A great guy from Scotland, I actually lived with him for a full year and he's awesome. He's a pretty quiet dude most of the time, but he's fun on and off the golf course, great teammate, always willing to stick up for you."
After graduating with a mechanical engineering degree, Thornton has a job lined up back in Scotland that he will begin soon.
Scotland isn't too far from France where Hugo Archer played boxing, tennis, and soccer along with golf during his childhood. He came to America and attended the University of Kentucky where he played in SEC tournaments before transferring to Southern for his junior and senior seasons. Fetcho says that Archer's decision to come to Carbondale was based on wanting to have a clean slate and also the winning values he noticed in the men's golf program at SIU.
"He was just looking for a fresh start…had experience and had all those intangibles that you would look for and kind of liked what we had to offer here at Southern Illinois, just from a player development standpoint, a coaching mentality," Fetcho said. "And he's been able to walk in here from day one and I think he's brought a different perspective, obviously coming from a different place and being able to kind of talk to the team just about the differences in cultures at different programs."
Even though Archer came from an SEC school, he continued to put his head down and work on his craft, and it was recognized and appreciated by his teammates. Thevenot terms him as a bulldog and spoke on Archer's ability to put his head down, work out in the gym, and take care of his business.
"He works hard, he does. He loves the game and I appreciated how he came to SIU from an SEC school and didn't have a big ego about it, ever really mentioned, he was just ready to do the dirty work right as he got on campus and that to me was pretty admirable as well," he said.
Archer and Thornton also lived with each other, during their freshman years. With both of them coming from across the pond, it created an opportunity for them to relate, along with their competitive natures.
"We just kind of hit off straight away. We're really good friends, still are, we lived together this year. So he was fun to be around on and off the golf course," Thornton shared.
Archer didn't miss a tournament in his first season as a Dawg and played in most of the team's tournaments during his senior season. He shot a career-low 65 in his junior year and finished in the top 10 during the MVC Tournament in 2024. He was a key contributor to the team's success and Fetcho values the attitude that Archer brought to everything he was involved in.
"I think what I've liked about him is he's brought hard work, he's brought an intensity, he's brought just a tough mentality, and that's from golf course, weight room, academics," he said. "He has done everything that we've asked him to do as a student-athlete and you know, I really am thankful that he chose to be a Saluki two years ago."
There are a lot of similarities between these four seniors, but each brought their unique values to the men's golf program and has set legacies for those that will come after them. They share a bond and have created long-lasting relationships while competing with each other at SIU.
"Just a good class to be a part of. I was very happy to be part of it. Like they've all taught me valuable things that I'll carry on forever," Thevenot said.
Wingerter expanded on their comradery, "All of us, like we work together, and we immensely cared for each other, and we had a lot of respect for each other and just anytime we could work together to try and be good leaders or try and set the standards or do anything to help the team. I think we were all pretty united in our efforts and we all were ready to work with each other and work with the team as a group."
Thornton continued on the competitive nature between them all, "We're just really good at when we're on the golf course, kind of wanting to grab each other's throats I guess, and then off the golf course, it's just like a switch flip somewhere back to being like best friends pretty much."
Players Mentioned
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