A pair of Coastal Georgia men’s golfers – Lauri Hacklin and Harrison Stafford – were among 23 student-athletes named NAIA Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholars by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) on Wednesday.
To be eligible for NAIA Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar honors, student-athletes must be a junior or senior academically, compete in at least three full years at the collegiate level, participate in 50 percent of his team’s competitive rounds, have a stroke average under 78.0, and maintain a 3.2 cumulative grade point average. Additionally, recipients must be of high moral character and in good standing with his college or university.
Both Hacklin and Stafford completed their Coastal Georgia playing careers this spring.
Wednesday’s award is the latest of multiple academic honors for Hacklin, who has already earned Academic All-Conference; 2018 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete and 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District At-Large, selected by CoSIDA status. Hacklin recorded a 72.40 stroke average during the 2017-18 season and ranked No. 37 in the final Golfstat individual rankings. He won the Coastal Georgia Fall Invitational and placed second in the spring’s Sand Shark Invitational. Hacklin was also named a NAIA Second-Team All-American, PING NAIA Third-Team All-American by the GCAA, PING All-Region by the GCAA, and All-Conference.
Stafford, who will be a student assistant coach for the Mariners during the 2018-19 campaign, garnered PING NAIA All-America Third Team honors in June. His best tournament of the season came at the NAIA National Championships, helping the Mariners to an overall fourth-place team finish. Stafford, who tied for sixth on the player leaderboard, shot a 2-under 282 (74 + 72 + 67 + 69). He concluded the season with a 75.34 stroke average and ranked No. 60 nationally.
Originally Published on CoastalGeorgiaSports.com.