Fresno State Athletics
Golf's Watney Ranked No. 1 In Two National Polls
10/17/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Oct. 17, 2002
Watney Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno State golf is coming off a tournament win at the Inaugural Alister Mackenzie Invitational earlier in the week and with that came a fourth consecutive individual title for senior Nick Watney (Dixon, Calif.).
The early season success has yielded a No. 1 national ranking for Watney in both the Golfstat Cups Standings and the GolfWeek/Sagarin Performance Index, which was released today.
The two-time GCAA Ping All-American has nine tournament wins in his career with 29 Top 10 finishes. Already a two-time qualifier for the U.S. Amateur, Watney enters his senior year with an all-time scoring average of 71.53.
Setting the school's single-season scoring record (70.53) last year, the 2000-01 Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year guided the Bulldogs to a third place showing at the NCAA Championships as a junior.
"In college, it's rare to win four tournaments in a career," head coach Mike Watney said. "Nick has four, alone, in one season and this is coming against Top 25 teams. When you compete in a tournament, you are going up against 100 or more players and 15 of them are playing at the top of their game every week.
"It's such an impressive resume that Nick has built up," Watney continued. "Most players would be happy to have Top 20 wins but Nick continues to take his game to the next level. The running joke on the team is for him to win every tournament.
"Nick's goal is to make the U.S. Walker Cup Team, " Watney added. "Lucky for us it won't happen until next September. Nick is a modest player who takes it all in stride. He is in relentless pursuit of excellence and is driven to succeed."
Watney, who has a season scoring average of 68.67, is challenging for a new national scoring average. Bryce Molder of Georgia Tech was the individual statistical winner in the GolfStat Cup standings last season with a 69.43. Other previous winners include Charles Howell (1999-2000) of Oklahoma State (69.57), Luke Donald (1998-99) of Northwestern (70.45), Matt Kuchar (1997-98) of Georgia Tech (70.80), Chris Hanell (1996-97) of Arizona State (71.44) and Tiger Woods (1995-96) of Stanford (70.61).
