Despite having the last week off from competition, the ETSU men’s golf team moved up one spot to No. 9 in the most recent national college ranking released by Golfstat.com on Tuesday. In addition, the Bucs maintained their Top 15 rankings in three other major polls released by Golfweek/Sagarin, Golf World and the Golf Coaches Association of America.
The Bucs, who most recently finished fifth at the GCAA Hall of Fame Invitational in Houston, Texas, have posted four-straight Top 5 finishes this spring – including a win at the General Hackler Invitational in Myrtle Beach, S.C., which was the first regular season tournament victory by the squad since 2001.
In addition, junior Rhys Davies currently stands as the No. 5 player in the nation according to the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.
In addition to the ranking news, Davies was once again named as a semifinalist for the Ben Hogan Award.
The most prestigious award in men’s college golf, the Hogan, is presented annually to the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or junior college golfer taking into account all collegiate and amateur competitions during the last 12 months.
Davies, a 2005 PING First-Team All-American who was a finalist for The Hogan a year ago, is joined on the list by fellow 2005 first-team selections Roberto Castro of Georgia Tech, Matt Every of Florida, Oklahoma’s Anthony Kim and Pablo Martin of Oklahoma State.
Baylor’s Ryan Baca, Andres Gonzales of UNLV, Brian Harman, Chris Kirk of Georgia and Wake Forest ‘s Kyle Reifers were also named semifinalists.
Finalists for The Hogan will be named on May 2.
The three finalists will then attend The Hogan Award banquet on Saturday, May 13 at Colonial Country Club the Saturday prior to the Bank of America Colonial with the recipient announced that evening.
The Bucs return this weekend, playing Saturday and Sunday at the Administaff ASU Invitational in Augusta Ga. Live scoring will be available at Golfstat.com.

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