Three Gator Golfers Named to Division I PING All-America Teams
Thursday, June 23, 2011 | Men's Golf
Three Florida men's golfers were named to the Division I PING All-America Teams, as announced by the Golf Coaches Association of America on Thursday.
Senior Bank Vongvanij (Bradenton, Fla.) was named to the first team, sophomore Phillip Choi (Orlando, Fla.) was named to the second team and redshirt-senior Andres Echavarria (Medellin, Colombia) was named to the third team.
Vongvanij had an incredible season, recording three medalist honors, four top-five finishes, two in the top 10 and two more in the top 20. He was named the SEC Player of the Year, added to the Ben Hogan Watch List and received an invitation to play on the 2011 Palmer Cup Team. In addition, he finished the season with the third-highest single-season stroke average mark in Florida history.
Choi recorded nine-consecutive top-10 finishes this season, earned a medalist honor at the John Hayt Invitational and ranks eighth on Florida's all-time single-season stroke average list with 71.42 strokes through 36 rounds.
Echavarria earned two medalist honors, including the SEC Individual Champion title. He recorded eight top-20 finishes in nine tournaments and ranks 11th on the career-stroke average list with 73.19 in 86 rounds.
First-team players include Patrick Cantlay of UCLA, Alabama's Bud Cauley, Luke Guthrie of Illinois, Oklahoma State's Morgan Hoffmann, Kevin Tway and Peter Uihlein, LSU's John Peterson, Patrick Reed of Augusta State, Florida's Vongvanij, James White of Georgia Tech and Andrew Yun of Stanford were previously named to the PING All-America First Team.
Auburn's Blayne Barber, Choi of Florida, Georgia's Harris English, Georgia Tech's J.T. Griffin and Kyle Scott, Kennesaw State's Jeff Karlsson, Henrik Norlander of Augusta State, Texas A&M's Jordan Russell, Alabama's Cory Whitsett and Washington's Chris Williams comprise the second team.
Third-team honorees include Echavarria of Florida, Texas A&M's Ignacio Elvira, Nils Floren of Texas Tech, Texas' Dylan Frittelli, Vince India of Iowa, Michigan's Lion Kim, Ben Kohles of Virginia, UCLA's Gregor Main, Jason Millard of Middle Tennessee and San Diego State's J.J. Spaun.
A total of 26 golfers were named honorable mention All-America.
