June 20, 2012
SAN DIEGO - Senior men's golfer J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.) capped his San Diego State career by earning All-America honors for the second year in a row, as he was one of 10 players tabbed to the Division I PING second team, the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) announced Wednesday. Spaun, who was a third-team choice in 2011, becomes the first Aztec to earn back-to-back All-America honors since former standout Aaron Goldberg in 2007-08.
Spaun led SDSU to its best-ever Division I finish last month, as the squad tied for fifth place after advancing to the match-play portion of the NCAA championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Individually, he logged his second-consecutive top-15 performance at nationals by tying for 13th place after coming in third in 2011.
The 2012 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, Spaun made national headlines by winning three tournaments in consecutive starts from March 13-23. For his efforts, he was named the National Amateur of the Month by the Southern Golf Association, Mountain West Golfer of the Month and Golf World College Player of the Week. Spaun's five career medalist honors tie him for first in school history along with SDSU Hall of Famer Lennie Clements.
Spaun is also a three-time all-league honoree (2010-11-12) and ended the campaign ranked 17th by Golfstat.com and 21st nationally by Golfweek. He currently boasts a World Amateur Golf rating of No. 13 and finished the 2011-12 collegiate season with a team-low 70.81 stroke average. He placed in the individual top 10 nine times as a senior and 24 occasions overall over his four-year SDSU career.
Spaun is the 11th Aztec to earn multiple All-America honors in his career and is the program's highest selection since Kris Moe was also a second-team honoree in 1984.
The GCAA recognized 62 of the nation's top men's collegiate golfers overall with 11 on the first team, 10 on the second team and 10 on the third team, followed by 31 honorable mention selections.
2011-12 PING Division I All-America Teams
First Team
Blayne Barber, AuburnJulien Brun, TCUDylan Frittelli, TexasStephan Jaeger, ChattanoogaDaniel Miernicki, OregonThomas Pieters, IllinoisPatrick Rodgers, StanfordJordan Spieth, TexasJustin Thomas, AlabamaChris Williams, WashingtonEugene Wong, Oregon
Second TeamJ.J. Spaun, San Diego StatePatrick Cantlay, UCLAPedro Figueiredo, UCLALuke Guthrie, IllinoisBrooks Koepka, Florida StateBen Kohles, VirginiaCheng-Tsung Pan, WashingtonT.J. Vogel, FloridaCory Whitsett, AlabamaAndrew Yun, Stanford
Third TeamZac Blair, BYUAlex Ching, San DiegoMax Homa, CaliforniaRobert Karlsson, LibertyJoakim Mikkelsen, BaylorJulian Suri, DukeJulio Vegas, TexasJames White, Georgia TechPeter Williamson, DartmouthBobby Wyatt, Alabama
Honorable MentionAnders Albertson, Georgia TechJosh Anderson, PepperdineAnton Arboleda, UCLAKevin Aylwin, North FloridaDominic Bozzelli, AuburnSebastian Cappelen, ArkansasJohn Catlin, New MexicoAlbin Choi, NC StateEric Chun, NorthwesternCorey Conners, Kent StateSean Dale, North FloridaGreg Eason, UCFDerek Ernst, UNLVRicardo Gouveia, UCFVaita Guillaume, CampbellBrandon Hagy, CaliforniaJeffrey Kang, Southern CaliforniaMichael Kim, CaliforniaWill Kropp, OklahomaSteve Lim, Southern CaliforniaTyler McCumber, FloridaNate McCoy, Iowa StateCorbin Mills, ClemsonKeith Mitchell, GeorgiaCameron Peck, Texas A&MKevin Penner, UNLVMatt Schovee, SMUMax Scodro, Notre DameEthan Tracy, ArkansasJoseph Winslow, IowaSang Yi, LSU