FORT MYERS, Fla. – After posting one of its best seasons in program history, the FGCU men's golf program was honored on Tuesday with the 2021 Mark Laesch Award by the Golf Coaches Association of America. The annual honor is presented to collegiate teams in each division and recognizes the best improvement in adjusted stroke average per round from the year prior.
The Eagles improved by a 15.26 adjusted stroke average per round during the 2020-21 year to lead all NCAA Division I programs. After playing in seven tournaments in 2019-20 before having the final three events cancelled due to the COIVD-19 pandemic, FGCU finished the year with a 300.71 stroke average. This past spring, through eight tournaments, the Green and Blue dropped that total to a 287.67 stroke average – the lowest team scoring average in school history and three strokes better than the previous record.
"It is truly an honor for our program to win an award with Mark Laesch's name on it. I remember my conversations with Mark from earlier in my career very fondly. In my opinion, he was a genius and I know if we could have conversations today, he would be so proud of us," said head coach
Andrew Danna. "There is so much that goes into a team award like this – it is a testament to the hard work of our student-athletes and understanding the environment we compete in each year. I look forward to this year as we continue our effort and pursuit each day to push the limit of what's possible for our program."
That enormous jump translated into the Eagles moving up 192 spots from No. 257 after 2019-20 to No. 65 in the final 2020-21 GolfStat.com national rankings.
The improvement on the course translated into five top-four finishes this past spring which included winning the Old Corkscrew Intercollegiate and a second-place finish at the ASUN Championship Tournament – the program's best finish in program history at the league tournament. The Eagles narrowly missed reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2021 as an at-large selection though senior
Van Holmgren (Plymouth, Minn./Waysata HS/North Dakota State) did compete as an individual after winning the ASUN Championship title.
The turn-around in just Danna's second year was bolstered by a talented group of players he recruited to FGCU including Holmgren who won finished 13h at the NCAA Regional and became the program's first-ever PING All-Southeast Region selection. The 2020-21 team also produced its lowest 18-hole team round in program history (-17) and for the first time in school history had half its rounds in a season at par-or-better (14-of-24).
With that team performance came ASUN Coach of the Year honors for Danna, while Holmgren (First Team), sophomore
Frankie Capan III (North Oaks, Minn./Northwest Christian HS/Alabama) and freshman
Austin Cherichella (Orlando, Fla./Lake Nona HS) earned conference accolades as well.
The Eagles have four of their lowest scoring players from last season with the exception of Holmgren heading into the 2021-22 season.
2020-21 GCAA Mark Laesch Award Winners
DI: FGCU - 15.26
DII: Saginaw Valley State - 11.02
DIII: Minnesota-Morris - 52.84
NAIA: Briar Cliff - 14.87
NJCAA DI: Andrew - 17.42
NJCAA DII: Iowa Central - 16.08
HBCU: Miles College - 7.17
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HEAD COACH ANDREW DANNA:
Danna just finished his second year at the helm of the FGCU men's golf program leading the Eagles to a second place finish at the ASUN Championship. One of the best turnarounds in NCAA history saw the Green and Blue, led by
Van Holmgren who became the first player to earn PING All-Region honors, jump from No. 257 in the final 2019-20 GolfStat.com rankings to a program-best 65 to close out 2020-21. Before taking over in Fort Myers, he served the 2018-19 season as the assistant at LSU. Prior to that he was the ultra-successful head coach for six years at Lynn University where he led them to the 2018 NCAA Division II national championship and was, subsequently, chosen the David Williams National Coach of the Year. He also led the Fighting Knights to three national runner-up placements, with a third and eighth place finish in his other two seasons.
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 85 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 13+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 42 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 21, 2020-21), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2021) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 23 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall, 2020 Spring, and 2020 Fall semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
