Lee McCoy and Chris Haack of the Georgia men’s golf team have been named the Southeastern Conference Player and Coach of the Year, respectively, according to an announcement Wednesday by the league office.
McCoy and Greyson Sigg earned First-Team All-SEC honors, while Sepp Straka and Zach Healy were selected for the Second Team by the league coaches. Georgia's four All-SEC selections led the conference. Vanderbilt had three honorees and Alabama had two, while Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M had one each.
“We are all very appreciative of these SEC awards,” Haack said. “To be chosen by the coaches is a great honor. I could not be prouder of our guys. They have worked so hard, and they deserve this recognition. My hat’s off to Lee on being named the Player of the Year. He has been a tremendous leader and ambassador for our program on and off the golf course all season.”
McCoy is the sixth SEC Player of the Year in school history, joining Peter Persons (1986), Jeremy Parrott (1998), Nick Cassini (2001), Chris Kirk (2006) and Russell Henley (2010). McCoy was First-Team All-SEC in 2015 and Second-Team All-SEC in 2014.
A senior from Clarkesville, McCoy has won two times this season, including medalist honors at last month's SEC Championship (the 16th Bulldog to win the league title). He has finished in the top seven in seven of the nine tournaments in which he has played. McCoy has a season scoring average of 69.69 and a career average of 70.86, each of which is better than the current school mark. He is No. 1 in the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking, No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and No. 6 in both the GolfStat Cup and the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings. McCoy made national headlines in March when he placed fourth in the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship and was four shots better than final-round playing partner Jordan Spieth, then drove 7.5 hours to play in the Southern Intercollegiate Championships in Athens.
“I’m honored to be chosen as the SEC Player of the Year,” McCoy said. “Our league is stocked with amazing players, so to win this is pretty surreal. All I’ve wanted to do all year is play to the best of my ability and give our team a chance to win. It’s been a fun and amazing year for all of us — and our team still has some pretty big goals.”
Haack earned the SEC Coach of the Year award for the fifth time in his 20-year career. Haack previously was recognized in 1998, 2000, 2006 and 2010. Haack has piloted the Bulldogs to a school-record 59 tournament titles, including three this season. Last month, he led the Bulldogs to his eighth and the program's 29th SEC Championship. McCoy is the fourth SEC Player of the Year under Haack's watch, while McCoy, Sigg, Straka and Healy give Haack 63 All-SEC selections (37 First Team, 26 Second Team).
Said Haack, “I’m humbled by my selection as the Coach of the Year. That award signifies that our team has performed well, so I share this with Coach Jim Douglas and all of our players.”
Sigg ranks second on the team and ninth in the SEC with a scoring average of 71.24. Sigg earned medalist honors — the first of his career — at the Carmel Cup and the Southern Intercollegiates earlier this season. The junior from Augusta has five top-10s this year, including 10th at the SEC Championship.
Straka, a senior from Valdosta, stands third for Georgia and 12th in the league with his 71.50 scoring average. Straka has five top-10 finishes, which is one more than he had in his previous three years. Straka had a stretch in the spring where he notched seven straight and 12 out of 14 par-or-better rounds.
Healy, a sophomore from Peachtree Corners, has a scoring average of 71.55, which ranks fourth for Georgia and 13th for the conference. He won his first collegiate golf tournament this season, claiming medalist honors at the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic. Healy has recorded seven other top-20s this season, including a third-place effort in the Southern Intercollegiates.
Sigg, Straka and Healy earned All-SEC recognition for the first time in their careers.
The No. 3-ranked Bulldogs will learn their NCAA Regional destination on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. The announcement will be made on The Golf Channel. The NCAA Regionals will take place May 16-18, followed by the NCAA Championships May 27-June 1 in Eugene, Ore.
• Speaking of Straka, he's playing in the Mackenzie Tour's Canada Q-School in British Columbia this week.
• The PGA Tour stop this week is the Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina. Brendon Todd, Harris English, Kevin Kisner and Brian Harman are in the field.
