July 10, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina golfers Mark Anderson, Patrick Cunning and Mark Silvers III were among the 96 NCAA Division I golfers named Cleveland Golf All-America Scholars, the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) announced today. It is the first selection for all three players and just the second time in school history that three Gamecocks have made the list, the first coming in 2004 when Alex Hamilton, Martin Rominger and Jake Thompson captured the honor.

“To have three players earn this honor is tremendous for our golf program,” South Carolina head coach Bill McDonald said. “I am extremely proud of these young men for their commitments to excellence in the classroom and on the golf course. They have been great examples and role models for our younger players. They have helped us establish a tradition of excellence that everyone associated with the golf program can be proud of.”

Anderson, a senior business major, adds the All-America Scholar honor to GCAA All-America and first-team All-SEC awards this season. He finished in the top 25 in nine of the 10 tournaments he played in 2007-08, including six top-20 showings in the spring alone. Anderson finished a season-best sixth at the Administaff Augusta State Invitational and finished the season with a career-best 72.00 average to rank sixth in the SEC.

A junior finance major, Cunning played in eight of the team’s 11 tournaments in 2007-08, posting a career-low 73.87 average. He turned in a career performance at the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate where he led the team with a career-best tournament score of 212 (-1) to earn his first career top-10 finish. That performance came on the heels of his first top-15 finish at the Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational where he claimed 13th place.

Silvers is a junior finance and management double major who was third on the team with a 73.13 average in 2007-08. He was second on the team in four of the Gamecocks’ last five events, including the SEC Championship and the NCAA East Regional. Silvers turned in a career spring season with three top-15 finishes, including a career-best seventh place at the SEC Championship. The effort started at the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate where he cracked the top 20 for the first time in his career, claiming 14th place behind a tournament score of 213 (E). His first top-10 showing came two weeks later at the Administaff Augusta State Invitational where he shot 142 (-2) in the rain-shortened event.

To be eligible for Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar status an NCAA Division I golfer must been a junior or senior academically and competed in at least two full years at the collegiate level, participated in 70 percent of his team’s competitive rounds or competed in the NCAA Championship, had a stroke average under 76.0 and maintained a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher.

South Carolina has had at least one golfer earn the award every year since 2004. Since 1990, nine Gamecocks have earned the award a total of 12 times. Hamilton, Eirik Johansen and Brett Quigley are South Carolina’s only multiple winners of the award.