Byrd Named Academic All-American for Second Straight Week

June 15, 1999

CLEMSON, SC – Clemson golfer Jonathan Byrd has been chosen as a first-team Academic All-American for the second straight week. Last week, Byrd was honored by the Golf Coaches Association of America, and on Tuesday he was named to the GTE Spring Sports CoSIDA Academic All-America team. The GTE team honors 15 student-athletes in the sports of golf, track & Field, tennis, volleyball and Lacrosse.

Byrd was one of just three golfers named to the first-team GTE squad. The others were Jamie Broce of Ball State and Dave Emanuelson of Northern Illinois. Byrd was named first-team All-American for his performance on the course last week by the Coaches Association, and is the only collegiate golfer to make the GTE first-team for his work in the class room and the Coaches Association team for his play on the course.

The native of Columbia is the first Clemson golfer to earn All-America honors on the course and in the classroom in the same year since 1990 when Oswald Drawdy was named to both teams. Byrd is just the second golfer in school history to make both teams in the same year.

Byrd led Clemson in stroke average this year with a 72.10 figure, the fourth best single season mark in Clemson history. He is currently fourth on the Clemson career list as well with a 72.75 average. This season he had seven top 10 finishes and now has 20 for his career. He finished 16th at the NCAA tournament, helping the Tigers to an eighth-place team finish.

The junior has a 3.6 grade point average in marketing. He was one of nine Clemson golfers to earn selection to the Clemson academic honor roll for the spring semester. Larry Penley’s team had a 3.2 team GPA for the spring, highest semester average on record.

Byrd is the third Clemson student-athlete to be selected to a GTE Academic All-America team this year. Will York (men’s swimming) and Jennifer Mihalik (women’s swimming), were honored on the winter sports team.

1999 GTE CoSIDA Spring Academic All-America Team

     NAME                  SCHOOL              SPORT    Jonathan Byrd         Clemson             Golf    Chris Bender          Rhode Island        Tennis    Kevin Betts           Georgia Tech        Track & Field    Jeff Brink            Western Michigan    Tennis    Jamie Broce           Ball State          Golf    Adam Connolly         Stanford            Track & Field    Dave Emanuelson       Northern Illinois   Golf    Keith Hall            South Carolina      Track & Field    Tom Hand              LSU                 Tennis    Neophytos Kalogerou   Southern Illinois   Track & Field    Oscar Lopez           Maryland-BC         Tennis    Joey Pitts            Georgia             Tennis    Brian Reinking        St. Francis (PA)    Volleyball    Robert Samuelsson     Tulane              Tennis    Calvin Thigpen        Mississippi         Track