SUWANEE, Ga. -- In exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the league office today announced the 2023 men's golf postseason award winners. 2023 All-SCAC Men's Golf Team
Cade Kiser of University of St. Thomas was named SCAC Golfer of the Year, while his head coach, Billy Tuten, earned Coach of the Year honors. In that same balloting, Neel Sandhu of Trinity University was selected SCAC Freshman of the Year.
Kiser, a senior from Katy, Texas, helped lead St. Thomas to the 2023 SCAC men's team title, the program's first since joining the conference prior to the 2019 season, and a berth into the NCAA Division III Championships. At the championships, Kiser carded a team-best 69 (-3) in the final round to improve 18 places on the individual leaderboard and finish with a final score of 291, good for 23rd overall as he led the Celts to a 16th-place team finish.
A 2023 Division III PING All-Region selection, Kiser was consistently in contention for top spots all season with an adusted scoring average of 72.71 and nothing short of a top ten finish throughout the year. He won two tournaments (Tempest Invitational & Linda Lowrey Invitational) and earned SCAC Golfer of the Week honors three times - tops among all golfers this season. At the SCAC Championships at Riverhill Country Club, Kiser fired rounds of 74, 75 and 73 to finish at 222 and tied for sixth place, earning All-SCAC honors in the process.
Kiser, who finished 25th in the final NCAA Division III GolfStat player rankings (tops among all SCAC men), is the first St. Thomas golfer to earn SCAC Men's Golfer of the Year honors.
Sandhu, a freshman from Southlake, Texas, finished the year averaging 74.71 over 17 rounds of action during the 2023 season for Trinity, finishing third on the team in total round played and scoring average. He earned a pair of top 10 finishes in seven events played this season, and was chosen to compete with the Tigers at the NCAA Division III Championships. In the final round of that event, Sandhu notched a pair of birdies on the back nine to start his day and played that stretch at even-par for a final round 76 to shoot 300 (75-76-73-76) for the tournament while helping lead Trinity to a 15th-place finish.
Sandhu is the second Trinity men's golfer in the last three years to earn Freshman of the Year accolades, following in the footsteps of his current teammate Giorgio Gianoulis who earned the honor in 2021.
Tuten earned Coach of the Year honors after leading St. Thomas to the 2023 SCAC Men's Golf Championship, and a berth in the NCAA Division III Golf Championship field, their first season eligible for NCAA post season play after transitioning from NAIA. At the national championship tournament which was contested at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, the Celts made the cut, shot a final round 294-team score - their second-best of the tournament - and finished with four-day score of 1197, good for 16th place in the 43-team field.
Back in April at the SCAC championships at Riverhill Country Club, and behind all-conference performances from all four of its scoring players, the Celts surged late and earned its first-ever SCAC men's golf title, shooting a team score of 294 on the final day to finish with a three-day total of 884 (+20) - seven shots clear of Schreiner University. As clustered as teams were heading into Tuesday's final round, the final margin of seven shots is the largest team victory since the Southwestern men defeated Trinity by nine shots at the 2017 championships.
In his eighth season at the helm of both Celts' golfing programs, the SCAC COTY honor is the first for Tuten and just the second in a spring sport for the St. Thomas athletic department, following the selection of Angela Froboese as SCAC Softball Co-Coach of the Year in 2022.
