ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – University of New Mexico senior men’s golfer Gavin Green already holds several school records. On Thursday, he added two more.
The Mountain West named Green as the 2014-15 Player of the Year, his second straight honor from the conference. Seniors Sean Romero and Sam Saunders also were named to the All-Mountain West Team.
“These awards are great recognition for three guys that have done a fantastic job this year,” coach Glen Millican said. “To have Gavin, Sean and Sam on the all-conference team and for Gavin to be named Player of the Year make this a very special year for these seniors in their last season with us. I am proud of all three of these guys.”
Green, the No. 8 collegiate player in the nation, according to Golfstat.com and the No. 12 collegiate player in the nation in the latest to the latest Golfweek.com/Sagarin poll, joins Tim Herron as the only Lobos to win back-to-back conference player of the year honors. Herron won Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year awards in 1992-93.
Green also joins UNLV’s Ryan Moore (2004-05) and Derek Ernst (2010-11) as the only repeat Players of the Year in the history of the Mountain West.
The Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia native has played in 13 events in 2014-15 and has three victories – UNM’s own William H. Tucker Intercollegiate, the Western Refining College All-American Golf Classic in El Paso, Texas and the Hootie’s at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate in Awendaw, S.C. He holds the UNM record for most career individual victories with eight. Herron is second with five.
Green recorded 10 top-10 finishes this season.
He also gave the Lobos their sixth Mountain West Player of the Year Award. Michael Letzig (2003), Charlie Beljan (2007), Steve Saunders (2009) and James Erkenbeck (2013) have won the other four Player of the Year awards for UNM.
Green also becomes the ninth player in UNM history to earn three all-conference nods. Only Tim Herron and Brian Kortan have four all-conference honors.
Romero and Saunders each earned their first all-conference selections. Romero (Texarkana, Texas) averaged 72.38 strokes per round this season and had four top-20 finishes in eight events, including three top-10s.
Romero finished tied for sixth at the National Invitational Tournament in Tucson in March and led UNM with a ninth-place tie at the MW Championships last week, also in Tucson.
Saunders, from La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, played in 12 events with five top-20s and a pair of top-10s. He averaged 72.56 strokes per round and was the Mountain West Player of the Week after tying for fourth individually and helping UNM capture the 3M Augusta Invitational last month.
Saunders, Steve’s brother, also finished tied for fifth at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate.
The three selections on Thursday give UNM 12 All-MW efforts in the last four seasons.
The 23rd-ranked Lobos will compete the NCAA San Diego Regional in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., next week, with the top five teams among the 13 schools advancing to the NCAA Championship in Bradenton, Fla., at the end of May.