Penley Named District Coach of the Year by GCAA

Clemson, S.C.—Clemson Head Coach Larry Penley has been named the East District Coach of the Year for the 2016-17 golf season by the Golf Coaches Association of America.

Penley was one of six coaches recognized with a district award. The others were Greg Nye of Penn State (Northeast), Scott Limbaugh of Vanderbilt (Southeast), Herb Page of Kent State (Midwest), Mike McGraw of Baylor (Central) and Casey Martin of Oregon (West).   Limbaugh was named the National Coach of the Year.

This is the seventh time that Penley has been honored with a district coach of the year award by the GCAA. It is the third time he has won the award in consecutive years. He also won the district award in 1988, 1997, 1998, 2003, 2004 and 2016.   Penley was named National Coach of the Year in 2003.

This past season Penley guided the Tigers to six tournament wins, tying for first in the nation with LSU. The six wins tied a Clemson season record as well. At one point Clemson won a school record five consecutive tournaments. Clemson had a streak of nine consecutive tournaments of either finishing first or second, also the longest streak of its kind in school history.

Clemson finished 16th in the final Golfweek/Sagarin ranking, 19th in the final Golfstat computer ranking, second at the NCAA Regional, second at the ACC Tournament and 30th at the NCAA National Tournament.

Statistically, Clemson was first in the nation in subpar strokes per round (3.77), second in total birdies (736), 10th in team scoring average vs. par (+0,78), 12th in par five scoring (4.72) and 12th in par three scoring (3.18)