Auburn University Men's Golf

Maggard was a semifinalist for the Jan Strickland Award for the National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2016 as selected by the Golf Coaches Association of America. Auburn, which finished tied for 19th at the NCAA Championship, won four tournaments in 2015-16 including the Carpet Capital Collegiate, U.S. Collegiate Championship, Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate and the Seminole Intercollegiate while finishing as runner-up in four others. The Tigers had five medalists with Michael Johnson winning three, the Primland Collegiate, Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate and the Schenkel Invitational. Freshman Graysen Huff won the ASU Fall Beach Classic while Will Long was co-medalist at the U.S. Collegiate Championship. Michael Johnson was named first-team All-SEC and was a semifinalist for both the Jack Nicklaus Award and Ben Hogan Award and was on the Haskins Award Watch List. Jacob Solomon was a Freshman All-SEC selection in 2016. Johnson and Solomon were both named to the PING All-Southeast Region team. Auburn won three consecutive tournaments with three straight medalists, all different, in the Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate, Tiger Invitational Presented by Jason Dufner and the Schenkel Invitational in 2014-15. Ben Schlottman was named Golfweek honorable mention All-American, the first freshman in school history to receive All-America honors. Five Tigers were named to the NCAA All-Southeast Region team as No. 1 Illinois and No. 2 Texas were the only three schools in the nation to have five players named NCAA All-Region. Schlottman and Matt Gilchrest were both named first-team All-SEC while Michael Johnson was a second-team selection. Schlottman also became the first Auburn freshman to be named All-SEC first-team in history while also being tabbed SEC Freshman of the Year. Auburn destroyed the school's team single-season stroke average record by averaging 283.23 strokes per round in 2015 with the previous mark being 285.30 set in 2011-12. In fact, Clinard-coached teams have the four lowest averages in Tiger history. Schlottman recorded the fourth lowest single season stroke average in school history and set the Auburn freshman record averaging 70.96. Auburn climbed to being ranked fourth nationally in 2014-15 after winning two consecutive tournaments in the Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate and the Tiger Invitational Presented by Jason Dufner by 28 shots, the largest margin of victory in school history. Auburn then won the Schenkel Invitational at 41-under, edging No. 5 Vanderbilt by a stroke, for its third-straight win. Prior to coming to Auburn in 2014-15, Maggard won four-straight Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championships in his four years as head men's golf coach at Div. III Guilford College. Maggard, who led Guilford to 16 tournament wins in his four seasons, was named the Jack Jensen ODAC Coach of the Year three-straight seasons from 2011-13. Guilford spent time ranked No. 1 in the nation by Golf World and in the Golfstat.com rankings in 2011 and 2012 as the Quakers finished ninth at the 2011 NCAA Div. III Championship, 11th in 2012 and 17th in both 2013 and 2014. Guilford's Noah Ratner was selected a three-time first-team PING All-American and ODAC Golfer of the Year from 2011-13 and received the 2012 Jack Nicklaus Award as the Div. III National Player of the Year. Maggard coached three All-Americans and had 11 golfers earn 18 All-ODAC awards, including Tanner Gross, who was a second-team PING All-American in 2014 and won the Golf Coaches Association of America's Phil Mickelson Award as Div. III's top rookie. Prior to Guilford, Maggard spent two seasons as the assistant golf coach at Transylvania under Brian Lane. He was one of 10 semifinalists for the GCAA's 2010 Jan Strickland Award, which is given annually to the assistant from all levels in college golf who excels in working with student-athletes on the course and in the classroom. Transylvania won the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference title and earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Div. III Tournament in 2009 and 2010. The Pioneers featured the HCAC's top golfer both seasons and had nine all-conference selections during his coaching tenure. Maggard was a four-year letterman at Transylvania from 2005-08, was a three-time All-HCAC selection and helped lead the Pioneers to the HCAC Championship and a pair of NCAA Championship appearances in 2007 and 2008. He was the runner-up at the 2006 HCAC Tournament while finishing third as both a junior and senior. The London, Ky., native won the 2007 Anderson Spring Invitational and the 2005 Transylvania Spring Invitational and served four years on the student-athlete advisory committee. He has worked each summer at Jerry Haas' Wake Forest University Golf Camps, spent four years as an assistant golf professional at the Man O'War Golf Learning Center in Lexington, Ky., and is a Level Two Titleist Performance Institute Certified Golf Professional. He also worked as a golf operations assistant at the Gulf Stream Golf Club in Delray Beach, Fla. Maggard earned his B.A. degree in business management from Transylvania in 2008. He is married to the former Katie Young of Lexington, Ky.  

Clinard is in his 16th year year overall as a head coach and eighth season with the Auburn men's golf team in 2016-17. Auburn won the Inverness Intercollegiate and Jerry Pate Intercollegiate this season, the 22nd and 23rd team championships in his eight seasons. The Tigers have climbed to as No. 2 nationally in the rankings this season. The Tigers were ranked No. 1 nationally for much of the 2015-16 fall season while senior Michael Johnson was ranked No. 1 nationally in the Golfweek individual rankings and second in the Palmer Cup rankings. Coach Clinard Hometown Gastonia, North Carolina College Wake Forest Family wife, Susan daughters, Chloe and Peyton Quick Facts Head Coaching Career 16th (8th at AU) First Place Finishes 34 (23 at AU) NCAA Appearances 6 (5 at AU) All-Region Selections 22 (16 at AU) All-SEC Selections 19 (all at AU) All-Americans 9 (7 at AU) Academic All-Americans 14 (10 at AU) Coaching History 2009-Present Auburn - Head Coach 2001-2009 UCF - Head Coach Coaching Record Year School Title Rec. 16-17 Auburn Head Coach 35-1-0 15-16 Auburn Head Coach 143-46-3 14-15 Auburn Head Coach 148-38-4 13-14 Auburn Head Coach 136-60-1 12-13 Auburn Head Coach 149-61-3 11-12 Auburn Head Coach 148-28-4 10-11 Auburn Head Coach 122-12-1 09-10 Auburn Head Coach 103-60-1 08-09 UCF Head Coach 155-51-3 07-08 UCF Head Coach 105-71-3 06-07 UCF Head Coach 55-67-1 05-06 UCF Head Coach 66-83-3 04-05 UCF Head Coach 108-81-3 03-04 UCF Head Coach n/a 02-03 UCF Head Coach n/a 01-02 UCF Head Coach n/a Under Clinard, the Tigers have reached five-straight NCAA Championships while earning 23 team and 26 individual titles and bringing in the strongest recruiting classes the Tigers have seen in years. Auburn is one of seven teams in the nation ... Florida State, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas and Southern California the others ... who have made at least five straight NCAA Championship appearances. Since Clinard came to Auburn in 2009, Auburn has produced seven All-Americans, eight Academic All-Americans, 16 NCAA All-Southeast Region selections and 19 All-SEC selections, including five All-SEC first-team selections, six All-SEC second team picks, seven Freshman All-SEC selections and one SEC Freshman of the Year. Clinard has posted a .764 winning percentage at Auburn with a record of 1018-309-18 (thru Sept. 22, 2016). Auburn has made the NCAA Regionals each of his seven seasons and have advanced to the NCAA Championship five straight years. Auburn, which finished tied for 19th at the NCAA Championship, won four tournaments in 2015-16 including the Carpet Capital Collegiate, U.S. Collegiate Championship, Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate and the Seminole Intercollegiate while finishing as runner-up in four others. The Tigers had five medalists with Michael Johnson winning three, the Primland Collegiate, Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate and the Schenkel Invitational. Freshman Graysen Huff won the ASU Fall Beach Classic while Will Long was co-medalist at the U.S. Collegiate Championship. Michael Johnson was named Golfweek first-team All-American, PING second-team All-American, first-team All-SEC and was a semifinalist for both the Jack Nicklaus Award and Ben Hogan Award and was on the Haskins Award Watch List. Jacob Solomon was a Freshman All-SEC selection in 2016. Johnson and Solomon were both named to the PING All-Southeast Region team. The Tigers had the fourth best NCAA Championship finish in school history by finishing 12th in 2015 and the Tigers are one of only eight teams to appear in four consecutive NCAA Championships. Auburn won three consecutive tournaments with three straight medalists, all different, in the Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate, Tiger Invitational Presented by Jason Dufner and the Schenkel Invitational in 2015. Ben Schlottman was named Golfweek honorable mention All-American, the first freshman in school history to receive All-America honors. Five Tigers were named to the NCAA All-Southeast Region team as No. 1 Illinois and No. 2 Texas were the only three schools in the nation to have five players named NCAA All-Region. Schlottman and Matt Gilchrest were both named first-team All-SEC while Michael Johnson was a second-team selection. Schlottman also became the first Auburn freshman to be named All-SEC first-team in history while also being tabbed SEC Freshman of the Year. Auburn destroyed the school's team single-season stroke average record by averaging 283.23 strokes per round in 2015 with the previous mark being 285.30 set in 2011-12. In fact, Clinard-coached teams have the four lowest averages in Tiger history. Schlottman recorded the fourth lowest single season stroke average in school history and set the Auburn freshman record averaging 70.96. Auburn climbed to being ranked fourth nationally in 2014-15 after winning two consecutive tournaments in the Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate and the Tiger Invitational Presented by Jason Dufner by 28 shots, the largest margin of victory in school history. Auburn then won the Schenkel Invitational at 41-under, edging No. 5 Vanderbilt by a stroke, for its third-straight win. Clinard coached the Tigers to their third-straight NCAA Championship appearance in 2014 as the Tigers had three tournament wins and eight top three finishes, including thirds in both the NCAA Regional and SEC Championship. Auburn, which was 136-60-1, finished 23rd in the NCAA Championship in Hutchinson, Kan., and finished ranked 19th overall. Auburn's three tournament wins in 2013-14 came in the Tiger Invitational Presented by Jason Dufner, the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate and the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate as Niclas Carlsson tied for first with a 70-73-66-209 and Matt Gilchrest finished a stroke behind with a 71-73-66-210. Senior Niclas Carlsson was named honorable mention All-American in 2013-14. Carlsson and freshman Matt Gilchrest were both All-SEC second-team selections, and Gilchrest was also named to the Freshman All-SEC team. Three Tiger freshmen were named SEC Freshman of the Week, including Gilchrest, Blake Messer and Will Long. Gilchrest was named SEC Player and Freshman of the Week following his four-stroke win at the UK Bluegrass Invitational. Messer won the USA Individual Tournament in Mobile while Long finished 10th in the USF Invitational. Auburn men's golf received the NCAA Public Recognition Award for placing in the top 10 percent in the most recent multi-year Academic Progress Rate scores with a perfect 1000 APR. Auburn placed 10 on the 2014 SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll five on the 2014 SEC First-Year Honor Roll. In 2012-13, Auburn finished 13th in the 2013 NCAA Championship in Milton, Ga., after finishing tied for second at the NCAA Regional in Columbus, Ohio. The Tigers finished the season ranked 14th nationally while having a record of 149-61-3. Auburn won three tournament titles at The McLaughlin, Mobile Bay Classic and Samford Intercollegiate. The Tigers had three individual medalists with redshirt freshman Jake Mondy at The McLaughlin in his first career tournament, Dominic Bozzelli at the Ameri Ari Invitational and Niclas Carlsson at the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate. Senior Michael Hebert was selected to the All-SEC second team while Mondy was a Freshman All-SEC selection. Auburn was ranked No. 1 nationally in the Coaches' Poll after two events in the 2011-12 season for the first time since the poll began in 2001. It marked the first time Auburn received a No. 1 ranking since the fall of 1996. The Tigers finished the 2011-12 season ranked a school-best fifth nationally in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings with three team victories and three individual wins and a record of 148-28-4 (.833), the second best winning percentage in school history. Auburn advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time under Clinard, finishing 15th at historic Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Auburn won the Carpet Capital Collegiate for its first opening season victory since the 1978 Alabama Intercollegiate. The Tigers also won the Gator Invitational and Hootie at Bulls Bay. Dominic Bozzelli became the first Auburn golfer in history to win back-to-back tournaments with the U.S. Collegiate and the Gator Invitational. Niclas Carlsson won the Hootie at Bulls Bay, a shot ahead of Blayne Barber. The Tigers were the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Greensboro Regional for the first time in school history. At the regional, Auburn had an incredible final four holes as it went 8-under par over that span to jump from seventh to finish third to qualify for the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2008. Five Auburn golfers earned All-SEC and NCAA All-Southeast Region honors, including first-team Blayne Barber, second-teamers Will McCurdy, Dominic Bozzelli and Niclas Carlsson and Freshman All-SEC Michael Johnson. The five All-SEC honorees are the most in program history, breaking the record of four in 2005. Junior All-American Blayne Barber finished the campaign with a scoring average of 70.76, which snapped the 36-year-old Auburn record that was set by Buddy Gardner in 1976. The Lake City, Fla., native finished the year with seven top-5 finishes including back-to-back runner-ups at the E-Z-GO Schenkel Invitational and the Hootie at Bulls Bay. Barber finished the season ranked No. 7 in the nation in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings and became the first Auburn golfer to be named a first-team All-American since Chip Spratlin and Iain Steel in 1995. Dominic Bozzelli was an All-America honorable mention selection in 2012. In 2010-11, Auburn finished with a school record winning percentage of .907 with a 122-12-1 record as the Tigers won back-to-back titles at the Chris Schenkel Invitational in 2010 and 2011 while also winning the 2010 Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate, 2010 Tiger Shootout and 2011 UK Bluegrass Invitational. The Tigers finished the season ranked 11th nationally and advanced to the NCAA Colorado Regional. Three Tigers were PING All-Southeast Region selections in sophomores Blayne Barber, Michael Hebert and freshman Niclas Carlsson. Only three NCAA Div. I programs had more selections than Auburn. Auburn also had three All-SEC selections as Ben Hogan Award semifinalist Blayne Barber was named second-team All-American and first-team All-SEC leading the Tigers with a 70.93 scoring average as Hebert as an All-SEC second team pick while Carlsson was a Freshman All-SEC selection. It marked the first time since 2005 that three Tigers earned All-SEC honors. Barber was also selected to play in the prestigious Palmer Cup. In 2009-10, Kyle Kopsick was named All-SEC second-team while David Zickler was named to the Freshman All-SEC team. Alongside Barber in 2010-11, Michael Hebert was named All-SEC second team while Niclas Carlsson was named Freshman All-SEC after he became to first freshman since Jimmy Green in 1988 to earn individual medalist honors. In his first two recruiting classes, Clinard signed a pair of recruits ranked top-10 in the world - Sweden's Niclas Carlsson and Michael Johnson of Birmingham, Ala. Clinard also signed the No. 1 recruit out the state of Alabama two seasons in a row in Michael Johnson and Ryan Benton. As swing coach for Barber, Clinard helped the Lake City, Fla., native become just the second golfer in school history to earn the honor of representing the United States at the Walker Cup. Barber also represented the United States at the 2011 and 2012 Palmer Cup. Barber earned his PGA Tour card for 2015 by finishing seventh on the 2014 Web.com Tour by earning $269,111. Clinard also coached Barber and David Johnson, who both were Florida State Amateur Golfer of the Year, the highest award in the state of Florida. In his career, Clinard has 34 tournament victories including two conference championships, coached nine All-Americans, 12 Academic All-Americans, two conference players of the year, three individual conference champions and 27 all-conference selections. UCF won the NCAA Southeast Regional title by defeating No. 2 Georgia and No. 13 South Carolina in 2009 along with claiming the school's first Conference USA Championship. The Knights also won The Hummingbird Intercollegiate and the Rio Pinar Invitational as Clinard was named Conference USA Coach of the Year and the NCAA Southeast Regional Coach of the Year. Clinard played professional golf for five seasons from 1996-2001 on the NGA Hooters Tour as well as several Nike Tour and Canadian Tour events prior to becoming head coach of UCF. He was also the assistant tournament director of the Jim McLean Future Collegians World Tour from 1998-2001 and worked as an assistant golf professional at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in McKinney, Texas, from 1997-2000. The Gastonia, N.C., native graduated from Wake Forest University in 1995 with a Bachelor's degree in speech communication. He played one year of collegiate golf at SMU before playing his final three years at Wake Forest from 1992-95, where the Demon Deacons were ranked in the top 10 in the nation all three seasons. Clinard is married to the former Susan Roberts, and they have two daughters, Chloe and Peyton.

Plunkett is entering her first season with the Auburn men's and women's golf teams. She joined the teams in March 2014 in her current role as Director of Golf Operations. Plunkett joined the Auburn staff after serving as the Assistant Director of Athletic Event Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she coordinated and managed hosting events as well as supervising gameday staff. She also served as tournament director for the 2013 Ruth' Chris Tar Heel Invitational Women's Golf Tournament; as well as the tournament director for the 2013 NCAA Field Hockey Championship. Prior to her time at North Carolina, Plunkett worked with the United States Golf Association as an administrative intern, supervising the operations budget for the intern program as well as developing USGA operations manual to communicate information to USGA staff, interns and vendors. Plunkett earned her bachelor's degreee from Georgia College and State University in 2011, graduating cum laude double majoring in marketing and management. She also served as a graduate assistant at North Carolina, where she received her master's degree in sport administration in 2013. At Georgia College and State University, Plunkett was a four-time letterman and team captain on the women's soccer team. She was selected as a NSCAA third-team All-America, as well as a first-team Academic All-American in 2009. Plunkett also volunteered with the Mia Hamm Foundation, assisting and promoting a silent auction and golf tournament for the organization.