Webb Simpson Named First Team All-America, Turns Pro
6/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
June 2, 2008
Wake Forest men's golfer Webb Simpson has been named to the Division I PING All-America First Team by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
This marks the only first team selection of Simpson's highly-decorated career. The Raleigh-native was a PING honorable mention in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and Golfweek named Simpson second team All-America in 2006 and honorable mention in 2007.
This season, Simpson has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, and has been selected to the Division I All-South Region PING Team. Simpson was also a semifinalist for the Ben Hogan Award.
Simpson won the ACC Championship in April and became just the sixth Deacon golfer in history to be selected to the All-ACC team four times.
Simpson, who graduated from Wake Forest in May, led the Deacons and the ACC in scoring average this season with a 70.3 stroke average per 18 holes. Golfweek ranks Simpson as the No. 1 amateur golfer in the world.
Along with the ACC Championship title Simpson recorded a victory at the Western Refining College All-America Classic in El Paso, Tex. last Novemeber.
Simpson wasted no time turning pro as he did so Monday and was granted a sponsor's exemption to compete in the PGA Tour's Stanford St. Jude Championship this weekend in Memphis, Tenn.
The PING Division I All-America team selections are listed below. Second team, third team and honorable mentions will be named Friday.
PING Division I-All America Team
Jonas Blixt, Florida State
Jorge Campillo, Indiana
Kevin Chappell, UCLA
Rickie Fowler, Oklahoma State
Rory Hie, Southern California
Jamie Lovemark, Southern California
Sihwan Kim, Stanford
Webb Simpson, Wake Forest
Joel Sjoholm, Georgia State
Michael Thompson, Alabama
A sidenote...
Wake Forest Hall of Famer Jay Haas won his second consecutive Champions Tour event after posting a six-under 65 in the final round of the Principal Charity Classic in West Des Moines, Iowa. Haas now stands atop the Champions Tour money list with $1,346,280 in earnings this year.
-WakeForestSports.com-
Players Mentioned
