SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Furman’s Keller Harper has been named the Southern Conference Player of the Year for the third time in his career, sharing the 2020-21 honor with ETSU’s Archie Davies, who was also named the league’s Freshman of the Year in voting by the SoCon’s eight men’s golf coaches. Jake Amos was named the Coach of the Year after leading the Bucs to a top-50 national ranking and the team and individual titles at the SoCon Men’s Golf Championship earlier this month.
 
Harper becomes only the second player to be named the SoCon Player of the Year three times in his career and the first since Chattanooga’s Stephan Jaeger, who currently leads the Korn Ferry Tour points list and recently secured his return to the PGA TOUR, did so from 2010-12. Harper, a senior from Atlanta, Georgia, leads the SoCon this season with a 70.71 stroke average and has posted four top-three finishes this season, including wins at the Pinnacle Bank Intercollegiate at Palmetto Hall and the Furman Intercollegiate, a runner-up showing at the Cleveland Golf Palmetto Intercollegiate, and a third-place finish at the SoCon Men’s Golf Championship. Of his 21 rounds this season, 12 have been under par, with seven rounds in the 60s. The Player of the Year award is the fifth in Furman’s men’s golf history, one of which was captured by Harper’s coach, Matt Davidson, in 2002.


Davies becomes the first player in league history to win both the Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year awards in the same season. The Carlisle, England, native is third in the league in stroke average this season, posting a 72.11 mark through 27 rounds with 13 rounds under par. The redshirt freshman has turned in four top-10 finishes this season, tying for second at the Kiawah Invitational in February before winning his first collegiate tournament at the SoCon Men’s Golf Championship with a wire-to-wire victory. He also tied for 10th at the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship and tied for seventh at the Stitch Intercollegiate and enters NCAA play with three consecutive top-10 finishes. He is ETSU’s first Player of the Year since Adrian Meronk won the award in 2015 and 2016 and claimed the Bucs’ 14th overall. He is ETSU’s seventh Freshman of the Year and first since 2004. The Bucs did not compete in the SoCon from 2006-14.
 
Amos earns his first SoCon Coach of the Year honor and ETSU’s 15th overall. The second-year head coach has guided the Bucs to five top-five showings in nine tournaments so far this season, including an eight-stroke win at the SoCon Men’s Golf Championship, in which three Bucs finished in the top 10 individually, including Davies’ win. Amos, who has had his team ranked as high as No. 50 this spring, helms a squad that boasts three All-SoCon performers this season, with senior Shiso Go and graduate Trevor Hulbert joining Davies on the squad. With their SoCon tournament win, the Bucs claimed the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.
 
ETSU’s three All-SoCon picks were a league best, while Wofford was second with Matthew Copeland and Ryan Marter earning the honor. Furman’s Harper, Mercer’s Tyler Copp, UNCG’s Symon Balbin, Chattanooga’s A.J. Lintunen and Western Carolina’s Pierre Viallaneix round out the team.
 
Davies headlines the All-Freshman team and is joined by fellow all-conference performers Balbin and Viallaneix as well as Furman’s Mac Scott and Wofford’s Matthew Larkin.
 
2020-21 All-Southern Conference Men’s Golf Team
 
Players of the Year
Archie Davies, R-Fr., ETSU
Keller Harper, Sr., Furman
 
Freshman of the Year
Archie Davies, R-Fr., ETSU
 
Coach of the Year
Jake Amos, ETSU
 
All-Southern Conference
Archie Davies, R-Fr., ETSU
Shiso Go, Sr., ETSU
Trevor Hulbert, Gr., ETSU
Keller Harper, Sr., Furman
Tyler Copp, Sr., Mercer
Symon Balbin, R-Fr., UNCG
A.J. Lintunen, R-Jr., Chattanooga
Pierre Viallaneix, R-Fr., Western Carolina
Matthew Copeland, Sr., Wofford
Ryan Marter, Sr., Wofford
 
All-Freshman
Archie Davies, ETSU
Mac Scott, Furman
Symon Balbin, UNCG
Pierre Viallaneix, Western Carolina
Matthew Larkin, Wofford
 
* Student-athletes that would have been eligible for all-freshman consideration last year before the season was curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic are eligible to be considered for this season’s all-freshman awards.