The Golf Coaches Association of America awarded Blaine Calhoon and Nate Jolly, two UCA golf players, the yearly Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar Honors.
The two scholars were named on Friday, July 30.
In his season, Calhoon was able to record a season-low round of 68 (-4) at the La Tour Intercollegiate, according to ucasports.com.
Calhoon ended the golf season with 75.52 as his average round score and a relative par score of 3.76.
Calhoon worked hard scholastically and was able to bring his GPA to 3.8.
Calhoon will start his junior year this fall and has not declared a major but is pursuing a business degree with an emphasis in either finance or risk management insurance.
Jolly will be a senior in the upcoming fall semester at UCA and will graduate with a business degree in insurance and risk management.
According to ucasports.com, Jolly ended the season with an average round score of 75.00 and had a team-best 3.21 score relative to par.
Jolly shot a season-low score of 68 (-4) once at the Gulf Coast Collegiate and again at the Little Rock Intercollegiate.
Jolly also worked hard to bring his academic GPA to a 3.8 at UCA and succeeded.
Both Calhoon and Jolly put effort into gaining more skills through summer tournaments and daily practice on the golf course.
“I’m thankful for [earning the GCAA Honors] because I know I worked pretty hard in the classroom and worked hard on the golf course,” Calhoon said. “Hopefully I can put in more practice and time and expand both in the classroom and on the golf course even more.”
Although golf may be perceived as an individual sport, both golf players have had the opportunity to grow relationships with other teammates and coaches through their past semesters on the team at UCA.
“I’m a pretty competitive person, I guess, and eight hours of competition is always nice,” Jolly said.
Jolly has been on the UCA golf team for three years and enjoys “the relationship you build with all the guys on the team, just being with them every day.”
Calhoon has been playing golf since he was a toddler, with a magnitude of support from his parents, grandparents, past coaches and friends.
“I would love for our team to be able to make it to the NCAA Tournament,” Calhoon said. “As an individual, I want to go as far as you can, you know all the way to the pro level of golf.”
Jolly also has plans to continue playing golf for UCA through his fifth year of school and wants to go pro after graduation as well.
Both golf players enjoy hunting and fishing outside of school, but love to spend time traveling for golf tournaments and practices.
Calhoon and Jolly are currently practicing individually for the next golf season.
While working towards new golf goals, Calhoon completed a Biology class with a lab during summer sessions at UCA.
With high expectations for next season, the UCA golf team should bring in new statistics to gain more titles, especially with Calhoon and Jolly on the team.