NEWBERRY — Newberry’s Howard Vroon has been named the Golf Pride Grips Southeast Region Coach of the Year for leading Newberry to a fifth-place finish at the 2017 NCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championships.
Vroon, who was named a finalist for the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year Award last month, skippered Newberry to arguably its best season ever.
The Wolves tied their own South Atlantic Conference record for highest finish at the national championships after advancing into match play, won two tournaments, finished runner-up three times, and never finished outside the top five-eighths of any tournament field this season.
Newberry played 12 events as a team this season and finished among the top three in half of its tournaments. The Wolves were outside the top five on just three occasions: a trio of sixth-place finishes as the Division I Cape Fear Intercollegiate, at the 20-team NCAA South/Southeast Regional, and in the 20-team stroke play portion of the NCAA Championships.
Junior Carlos Leandro ended the season with a 10th-place finish at the stroke play portion of the national finals. He ended the season ranked No. 8 in Division II by Golfstat to lead a group of three Wolves that finished inside the top 100. Junior Spencer Skiff (No. 50) and sophomore Harry Bolton (No. 97) rounded out the group for Newberry.
Skiff was twice an individual medalist this season, including upon firing a final-round 65 at The Ocean Course, called America’s toughest on two occasions by Golf Digest.
Skiff claimed seven of the Wolves’ 23 individual top-10 finishes this season, while Leandro had six and led the Wolves with a win-loss percentage of .885. Every Newberry player had at least one top-10 finish this season.
This marks the first Southeast Region Coach of the Year award for the sixth-year head coach. Vroon was voted Big South Conference Coach of the Year six times during his 11-year coaching stint at Division I Charleston Southern.
Steve Fell of West Florida won the Dave Williams Coach of the Year award for Division II.