AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Augusta State men’s golf
coach Josh Gregory finished second in the final standings for the
2008 Georgia State Golf Association Men’s
Player-of-the-Year.
In his seventh season as head coach of the Jaguar men’s golf
program, Gregory enjoyed a tremendous playing season in 2008. He
represented the state of Georgia last October in the Southeastern
Challenge Match, a biennial competition among amateurs in the
states of Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Gregory posted a 1-1 record
and helped lead Team Georgia to a 26.5-21.5 victory over Alabama
and a 26.5-15 win over Florida.
Gregory also finished runnerup in the Atlanta Amateur Match Play
Championship in early October, advanced to the Round of 16 in last
September’s U.S. Mid-Amateur at Milwaukee Country Club and
lost in a nine-man playoff for a spot in the field of last
summer’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course.
David Noll, Jr. of Dalton topped Gregory in the points standings
and earned the 2008 Tommy Barnes Award, signifying the
Association’s overall Player-of-the-Year. He became the ninth
different recipient of the award in its 11th year of existence.
Noll was presented with the award during the GSGA’s annual
Player-of-the-Year Awards Luncheon, held at Cherokee Town Club in
Atlanta on January 24, 2009.
The award’s namesake, Tommy Barnes of Atlanta, was one of
Georgia’s legendary amateur golfers. Among his many
accomplishments, Barnes captured the 1941 Georgia Amateur
Championship, won the 1947 and ’49 Southern Amateur titles,
qualified for 16 consecutive U.S. Amateur Championships and played
in the 1950 Masters Tournament. In 1989, at age 73, Barnes shot 62
to break Bobby Jones’ 67-year-old record at his home course,
East Lake Golf Club. He also had a long history of service to GSGA
and other golf associations, and was a member of numerous Halls of
Fame. Barnes passed away in 2007 at age 91.
In honor of this special gentleman, GSGA established the Tommy
Barnes Award in 1983-84 to recognize its Men’s Player of the
Year. Beginning in 1998, the Tommy Barnes Award was given to the
annual overall player of the year.