PROVIDENCE, R.I. – USF senior Claudio Correa was unanimously chosen as the American Athletic Conference Men’s Golf Player of the Year, the conference announced on Thursday.
For the fourth straight year, USF head coach Steve Bradley was tabbed The American’s Coach of the Year, while SMU freshman Mac Meissner was voted the Freshman of the Year in the conference. Memphis was honored with the Team Academic Award after compiling a 3.604 grade-point average. Both Bradley and Meissner were unanimous choices in voting of the conference’s head coaches.
Correa, the 2015 American Men’s Golf Freshman of the Year, enters the postseason as the No. 32-ranked golfer in the NCAA. The Santiago, Chile-native capped a remarkable season in which he tallied five top-five results, including medalist honors at the American Athletic Conference Men’s Golf Championship, presented by Visit St. Pete/Clearwater.
Correa was joined by teammates Cristian DiMarco and Jimmy Jones on the all-conference team; DiMarco and Jones tied for runner-up honors at the conference championship. DiMarco and Jones are repeat selections to the all-conference team, while Correa joins the roster for the third time in his career. The trio will be among No. 20 USF’s lineup when the Bulls take a No. 4 seed to the Kissimmee Regional to open the NCAA Championship.
Under Bradley, USF has reached the NCAA Championship in all four of his seasons at the helm of the program. This season, Bradley has led the Bulls to five tournament wins, matching the most in program history. USF’s 20-stroke margin of victory at The American Championship equaled the largest in the tournament’s history.
Entering the NCAA Championship, Meissner is rated as the ninth-best freshman in the country, per Golfstat. Meissner’s 71.80 scoring average is the fourth-best in SMU’s history, dating back to 1993-94, trailing only Bryson Dechambeau (2013-14, 2014-15) and Kelly Kraft (2009-10). Meissner was among the individuals chosen for the NCAA Championship and will head to the Norman Regional, competing on the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club in Norman, Okla.
Meissner’s teammate Gray Townsend earned all-conference accolades for the second consecutive year by virtue of his top-seven finish at the conference championship.
Memphis earned the Team Academic Award by virtue of its 3.604 grade-point average. The award goes to the team in each conference sport with the highest cumulative grade-point average at the beginning of the 2017-18 academic year.
UCF, which received a No. 10 seed in the Kissimmee Region at the NCAA Championship, placed three players onto the all-conference team – sophomore Bobby Bai, senior Manuel Elvira and junior Kyler Tate. Both Bai and Elvira are repeat selections to the team.
Also returning to the team for a second consecutive year are Cincinnati’s Austin Squires, Jimmy Hervol of UConn and Houston’s Michael Perras.
Perras was among the individuals selected for the NCAA Championship and will compete at the College Station Regional at the Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas. The senior is one of just 17 players in program history to compete in three-plus NCAA Regionals.
Davis Baxter of Cincinnati, who joined DiMarco and Jones in a three-way tie for second at The American Championship, earned a place on the team by virtue of his finish. Voted onto the team was the ECU duo of Patrick Stephenson and Blake Taylor, along with Houston sophomore Zach Tracy.
American Athletic Conference Men’s Golf Honors
Player of the Year: Claudio Correa, USF*
Freshman of the Year: Mac Meissner, SMU*
Coach of the Year: Steve Bradley, USF*
Team Academic Award: Memphis (3.604 gpa)
All-Conference Team
Bobby Bai, UCF
Manuel Elvira, UCF
Kyler Tate, UCF
Davis Baxter, Cincinnati
Austin Squires, Cincinnati
Jimmy Hervol, UConn
Patrick Stephenson, ECU
Blake Taylor, ECU
Michael Perras, Houston*
Zach Tracy, Houston
Claudio Correa, USF*
Cristian DiMarco, USF*
Jimmy Jones, USF
Mac Meissner, SMU*
Gray Townsend, SMU
* - denotes unanimous selection