![Guilford's Noah Ratner receives his award from Jack Nicklaus at The Memorial golf tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.](/sports/golf/2011-12/photos/gc-ratner-nicklaus.jpg)
Honor Signifies National Players of the Year at All Divisions
DUBLIN, Ohio --- Guilford
College's Noah
Ratner was one of five students honored Sunday
with the 2012 Jack Nicklaus Award, presented by the Golf Coaches
Association of America (GCAA) to the nation's top golfer. He is the
first Guilford student so honored.
Ratner was recognized as the top player in NCAA Division III. He
was joined Sunday by fellow honorees Justin Thomas (University of
Alabama – NCAA Division I), Ben Taylor (Nova Southeastern
University – NCAA Division II), Nathan Anderson (Texas
Wesleyan University – NAIA) and Jimmy Kozikowski (South
Mountain Community College – NJCAA). Since 1988, the award
for the GCAA Collegiate Players of the Year has been named after
Jack Nicklaus, a Big Ten Conference and NCAA Champion at The Ohio
State University.
As in years past, Nicklaus recognized the 2012 recipients during
the final round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide
Insurance at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, just outside of
Nicklaus' hometown of Columbus.
Ratner recently concluded one of the greatest seasons in Guilford
College's lengthy and successful golf history. The junior received
PING First Team All-America recognition for the second straight
season, joining a list of nine other Quakers' golfers lauded as
first-team All-Americans. He spent most of the year atop the
Golfstat.com NCAA Division III Head-to-Head Player Standings and
edged out national medalist Anthony Maccaglia of Oglethorpe
University in the final ratings. Ratner tied a Guilford record with
four medalist honors, the first of his career, and recorded a 72.73
season stroke average, the second-best figure in school
history.
Ratner started his memorable campaign by winning the season's first
three tournaments. He shot three-under-par 213, the
10th-lowest 54-hole score in school history, for a
three-stroke win at the 92-man Gordin DIII Preview Sept. 27. The
junior returned to Florida two weeks later and blistered the
Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort with a nine-under 204 that
shattered the school standard and earned a three-stroke win in the
90-man field. Sparked by a career-low 65, Ratner claimed his third
straight medalist honor Oct. 25 with a one-over 141 at the 89-man
O'Briant- Jensen Memorial at the Cardinal Golf and Country Club.
Ratner helped coach Corey
Maggard's Quakers to two fall victories and top
rankings in both the Golfstat.com and Golf World/Nike
Golf Coaches' ratings.
Ratner opened the spring season by collecting his second career
runner-up honor, at the Pine Needles Intercollegiate Feb. 28. He
returned to his winning ways two weeks later and led the Quakers to
their fourth team title of the season at the Taylor Made-Adidas
Invitational at the Dataw Island Club in South Carolina. Ratner
withstood the challenging conditions to shoot 231, five strokes
better than teammate Mitch
Robinette in the 50-man field. He concluded his
season with four top-13 finishes, including a 12th-place
finish at the NCAA Division III Championships that helped the
Quakers place 11th among 41 teams.
In addition to his All-America honor, Ratner earned PING First Team
All-South laurels for the second straight season and became the
Quakers' fourth two-time ODAC Golfer of the Year. He collected four
more ODAC Golfer of the Week Awards this year to raise his career
total to 10. Ratner takes a 73.56 career stroke average into his
senior season.
Guilford earned five team titles this season, including its league
record-tying 12th Old Dominion Athletic Conference
(ODAC) crown. The Quakers ranked fifth in the final Golf
World/Nike Golf Coaches' Poll and eighth in the Golfstat.com
ratings.
--- This release is
courtesy of the Guilford College sports information department.
---
www.guilfordquakers.com