Three Jaguar Men’s Golfers Earn All-SBC Honors
Photo: Mike Kittrell al.com
Three Jaguar Men’s Golfers were earned Sun Belt Conference recognition for their season on Thursday.
Junior Michael Garretson was named the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Golfer of the Year. In addition, fellow junior Tyler Klava was named to the first-team All-Sun Belt team while senior Lane Hulse was named to the second-team All-Sun Belt Team.
This is the 24th consecutive year that USA has been represented by at least one All-Conference student-athlete.
Garretson from Acworth, Georgia led the Jags with nine top-20 finishes in 12 events this season. Seven of those were top-10 finishes. He also had a 72.61 stroke average that ranked second in the conference. In September, he was the SBC Golfer of the Month after tying for third in the Sam Hall Intercollegiate and tying for second one week later at the Columbia Regional Preview. Garretson was ninth at The Invitational at The Ocean Course and tied for ninth at the Samford Intercollegiate while helping the Jags finish second and first respectively at those events. His 6-under-par 65 and 8-under-par 205 at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate were the lowest 18 and 54-hole scores posted by a Jaguar this season.
This is the second consecutive season that Garretson was named to the first-team All-Conference team.
Klava from Pace, Florida also had a 72.61 scoring average and led the league by 0.005 of a point after recording top-10 finishes in each of the Jaguars’ last three events. He tied for second in the Sun Belt Championship with a 5-under-par 211 total for three rounds which was highlighted by a season-low 4-under 68 on the opening day of the tournament. He finished second on the team with five top-10 finishes and seven top-20 finishes with 16 rounds of par or better.
He is the third member of the program to earn All-SBC honors on at least three occasions under head coach Ben Hannan and joined Jonny Caldwell and Jack Hiluta in that honor.
Hulse from Fordyce, Arkansas posted a career low 73.75 stroke average which was third on the team and 14th in the conference. He posted three top-10 finishes, all this spring, and was in the top-20 on five occasions in his final season for the Jaguars. He led the Jags in its win at Samford while tying for second in the individual standings while his other top-10 results helped the Jags finish second at both the Memphis Intercollegiate and the SBC Championship.
He shot a low round of 2-under 69 at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate and a career-best 3-under 213 three-round total at the AutoTrader.com Collegiate Classic in October.
Their efforts on the course have helped the Jaguars to finish in the top-three six times this season and to finish the season ranked 54th according to the most recent GolfStat rating.
Monday morning they will find out if they have received an invitation to play in the NCAA Regional.