Andrew Danna enters his sixth season with the Eagles in 2024-25 having turned the men's golf program into an ASUN title contender and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history in just three short years. Since being named head coach in June 2019, Danna has shown himself to be a tireless recruiter which has produced results on the course.
In 2023-24, FGCU narrowly missed earning its second-ever at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament field. The Eagles closed the season ranked No. 66 overall and climbed as high as No. 50. FGCU notched one tournament victory and four Top 3 team finishes. The Green and Blue posted the lowest scoring average in program history at 284.9 and also sent an individual to the Austin Regional. Joe Sullivan earned the individual at-large bid into the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship, fishing 25th overall. In the first tournament of the season, Sullivan won the angular Valero Texas Collegiate in a three-way playoff, earning an exemption into the PGA’s Valero Texas Open. Sullivan would also force a three-way playoff at the ASUN Championship en route to ASUN All-Tournament honors. Sullivan broke the program’s single-season round average (70.6) and total under par rounds (23) and rounds played (39).
The Eagles won the Wisconsin Badger Invitational, marking the fourth win for coach Danna in his tenure at FGCU and the first since March of 2022. FGCU broke five team records in Hawaii, highlighting a runner-up performance at the Kapolei Invitational. FGCU turned in a program record 20-under to-par score to open the tournament. The Eagles continued its historic charge by also breaking the 36-hole to-par score at 30-under. The Green and Blue finished 51-under as a team, another program record. FGCU's aggregate three-round score of 813 shattered the previous record of 832. FGCU's 267 in the final round tied the school record for the lowest team round, but its 21-under-par score on Thursday broke its Tuesday record of 20-under.
The Green and Blue captured its second runner-up finish of the season at the Auburn Tiger Invitational, placed third at The Rutherford Intercollegiate and fourth at the ASUN Championship. Sullivan took home ASUN Second Team honors, Austin Cherichella earned ASUN Third Team distinction and Brody Stevesnon landed on the All-Freshman Team list. Cherichella was also named to the ASUN’s All-Academic Team and as a squad, the Eagles posted a 3.43 GPA during the spring semester.
In 2022-23, FGCU posted not one but two top five team finishes. The Eagles placed second at the Daniel Island Intercollegiate and third at The Hayt. FGCU came up just three strokes short of nationally ranked Mississippi State at the Daniel Island Intercollegiate.
The Eagles finished ninth at the ASUN Championship as Lukas Roessler paced the FGCU starting five, tying for 11th on the team leaderboard. Austin Cherichella’s team-low 65 at the ASUN Championship tied the lowest round ever posted by an Eagle at the Championships. The Eagles also carded a season-low and a championship program-best round of 276.
Two Eagles earned ASUN All-Conference honors as Cherichella landed on the second team, and Sam Baker garnered all-freshman team recognition. Cherichella also earned ASUN All-Academic team distinction.
Pierre Viallaneix was named ASUN Men’s Golfer of the Week for his performance at the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate, tying for fourth at nine-under par.
The former assistant coach at LSU and national championship coach at Lynn University oversaw a rehaul of the FGCU program where the Eagles jumped to their highest national ranking in their Division I history. After finishing his first season ranked No. 257 in the GolfStat.com national rankings, Danna helped the Green and Blue jump nearly 200 points to No. 65 at the conclusion of 2020-21. The Eagles narrowly missed reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2021 as an at-large selection and had its highest-ever finish (second) at the ASUN Championship Tournament.
Building off that momentum, Danna led the Eagles to a historic 2021-22 campaign that saw the Eagles earn FGCU's first-ever NCAA Tournament at-large berth for any program. After again placing second at the ASUN Championship and with a strong showing at the NCAA Regionals, the Green and Blue finished the year with its best-ever national ranking at 54 and climbed as high as a program best No. 47 during the regular season.
That turn-around in just his second year was bolstered by a talented group of players he recruited to FGCU including Van Holmgren who won the ASUN Championship, finished 13h at the NCAA Regional, and became the program's first-ever PING All-Southeast Region selection. The 2020-21 team produced the lowest team scoring average in school history (287.67 - just over three strokes better than the previous record), 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), Frankie Capan III (Second Team) and Austin Cherichella (All-Freshman Team) earned conference accolades as well.
Following the year, FGCU was honored with the 2021 Mark Laesch Award by the Golf Coaches Association of America having led the nation with a 15.26 adjusted stroke average per round improvement from 2019-20.
Danna was again named the ASUN Coach of the Year in 2021-22 as the Eagles won a pair of tournaments (the first time since 2017-18 to win multiple events) and set school records for scoring average (287.14), par-or-better rounds (18), birdies (584), and a low 54 hole total (832, Auburn Invitational). That success led to a program-record five student-athletes earned All-ASUN honors: Frankie Capan III (2nd Team), Austin Cherichella (1st Team), Lucas Fallotico (All-Freshman Team), Jon Hopkins (2nd Team), and Pierre Viallaneix (2nd Team).
In his six-year tenure at Lynn, he produced three runner-up campaigns along with a third and eighth-place finish at the national tournament. In his one-year stint at LSU, Danna played a key role in the development of a team that advanced all the way to the third round of stroke play at the NCAA Championships.
Danna left Lynn as the most accomplished men's golf coach in program history. Since joining the Fighting Knights in 2012, he steered his teams to six NCAA national tournament appearances, including a national title in 2018 and three national runner-up finishes. The team won back-to-back Sunshine State Conference (SSC) championships in 2015 and 2016.
In his final season with the program, Danna led the Blue and White to its first-ever NCAA national title before being named the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year for Division-II. Along the way, Lynn broke program records for lowest 54-hole total (826 – FAU Spring Championship), stroke average and team stroke average. In addition, the Fighting Knights finished in the top-five in 10 of their 12 tournaments and had at least one individual place in the top-10 in nine events.
A two-time SSC Coach of the Year, Danna oversaw 17 All-Americans, nine All-America Scholars, a National and SSC Freshman of the Year in Felix Kvarnstrom and 13 All-SSC selections at Lynn. The 17 All-Americans awarded under Danna are the most during any coach's tenure in program history.
In the fall of 2016, Danna became the record holder for career victories at Lynn after the team took top honors at the Otter Invitational, the 17th time the program finished first under his direction. He concluded his time at Lynn with a program-record 22 tournament victories.
On top of all that, one of Danna's recruits at Lynn, Tomás "Toto" Gana, won the Latin America Amateur Championship and competed in the 2017 Masters.
Prior to his six-year stint at Lynn, Danna served as the head coach at Georgia Southwestern State University. In two seasons, he had three student-athletes selected as All-Americans as announced by the Golf Coaches Association of America. Named the 2012 Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year in his final year at Georgia Southwestern, he helped lead the team to three squad victories and had two players take home medalist honors as they rose to No. 1 in the NCAA Division II Golfstat rankings.
Danna earned his master's in business administration in December 2017 from Lynn University and a Bachelor of Science in business administration in August 2006 from Mississippi State University. He and his wife, Carey, reside in Estero, Florida, with their two children June (4) and Emeline (2).
