Penley Named National Coach of the Year

May 31, 2003

Stillwater, OK – Clemson Head Coach D.J. Trahan, Jack Ferguson and Matt Hendrix were named, first, second and third team All-Americans, respectively by the same association.

Penley led the Tigers to the school’s first golf national championship on Friday afternoon. This season the Tigers won a school record six tournament titles, including the ACC, NCAA East Regional and NCAA national tournaments. It marked the first time in college golf history that a school won a conference NCAA regional and NCAA national tournaments in the same year. Penley now has won seven ACC championships and six NCAA Regional titles. He has more regional championships than any other college coach. Overall, he now has 54 tournament championships in his 20 years at Clemson.

Penley is the fifth Clemson coach in history to be named a national coach of the year. Bob Pollock, current men’s track coach, was named the NCAA Indoor Track National Coach of the Year in 1992. Men’s tennis coach Chuck Kriese and football coach Danny Ford were both named National Coach of the Year in 1981. Fencing coach Charlie Poteat was named National Coach of the Year in 1982 and 1986.

Trahan earned first-team All-American honors for the second consecutive year. He finished the season with a team best 71.05 stroke average and leaves Clemson as the school’s career leader in stroke average on a career and season basis. He was an Academic All-American as a junior, when he also won the Jack Nicklaus Award and the Ben Hogan Award as national player of the year. He set 20 Clemson school records in his career.

Ferguson was Clemson’s top player at the NCAA tournament with a 298 score, good enough for 19th place overall. The sophomore from Seneca finished the season with a 71.41 stroke average, but he led the team in stroke average over the last seven tournaments of the year. He had 27 rounds at par or better this year. Twice he came through in the clutch to clinch Clemson victories. His eight-foot putt on the last hole gave Clemson the ACC Championship by one shot over Wake Forest in April, and his par on the 72nd hole clinched Clemson’s two shot victory in the NCAA Tournament on May 30.

Hendrix, a junior from Aiken, SC, finished the season with a 71.74 stroke average. He finished 35th at the NCAA Tournament with a 303 score. His 69 in the third round was the low round of the NCAA Tournament for a Clemson golfer. He had six top 10 finishes this year and posted 12 rounds in the 60s. Four times he finished in fourth place in tournaments this year including the NCAA East Regional.