West Virginia University fifth-year golfer Etienne Papineau has been medically cleared to return to the Mountaineer golf lineup, coach Sean Covich announced today.

It was announced in September that Papineau would miss the entire 2020-21 season with knee surgery, but he will return to the lineup next Monday and Tuesday at the Mountaineer Invitational.

“We are so excited to get Pap back in the lineup,” Covich said. “He is an amazing teammate. The guys love being around him and now to have him back in the lineup, it’s just awesome to see.

“We have competed in six seasons since reinstating golf at WVU and Pap will now have played on five of those six teams. He has meant so much to our program since his 2016 freshman season.”

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.

Papineau has played in 42 tournaments (second in school history) and 123.0 rounds (second in school history), has shot 46 rounds of even par or lower (second most in school history) and has a career scoring average of 73.41 (fourth best in school history).

In the classroom, Papineau is a two-time Golf Coaches Association of American (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 last May and is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration.

“A lot of credit goes to Pap and our medical staff for getting him healthy and back to competition,” Covich said. “Since his knee surgery in September, Pap has worked hard in rehabilitation just to be able to play golf again. Once he was cleared to start practice, he was determined to make the starting lineup again. I hope that his journey these past few months shows our guys what it means to work hard, not make excuses and find a way to get better every day.”

West Virginia will host the Mountaineer Invitational on Monday and Tuesday at the Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, West Virginia. The event was postponed from October due to COVID-19.