Sophomore Matt Organisak (Sudbury, MA), a key member of the No. 3-ranked Emory men's golf team, has been named by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) as NCAA Division III semifinalist for the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Barbasol. The Nicklaus Award recognizes the top players at the Division I, II, III, NAIA and NJCAA levels. It is the second straight season that he has been tabbed as a semifinalist.
Organisak is one of 30 Division III golfers who will be considered for the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award.
Organisak, recently named the University Athletic Association Player of the Year for the second straight season, has played in all of Emory's tournaments this season, averaging a team-best 73.1 strokes over 19 rounds. He has ranked as the team's top performer on four occasions while recording a team-high 10 rounds of par or better. His best 18-hole effort of the season was a second-round 67 (tying the program's fourth-best individual round in school history) at the Rhodes College Fall Classic, where he ended up tied for co-medalist honors with a school-record 54-hole score of 206. Named the UAA Golfer of the Week on three occasions, Organisak has compiled four top-five finishes this season, including a third-place performance out of 83 competitors at the Discover DeKalb Emory Spring Invitational with an even-par 140, tying the school's fourth-best showing for a 36-hole tournament. He helped the Eagles to their third straight conference crown, playing his way to a spot on the Championships All-Tournament Team.
The Division III finalists will be announced May 15. Nicklaus Award recipients will be announced May 31 with the honor presented by Jack Nicklaus at a ceremony during the final round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
In addition to receiving the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award, the five recipients will compete in the Barbasol Shootout for an exemption into the PGA TOUR's Barbasol Championship, held July 16-22, at the Champions at Keene Trace in Lexington, Ky. The Barbasol Shootout will be held Saturday, June 2 at the storied Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio - the same club where Jack Nicklaus first learned the game of golf as a young boy.
Division III Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Barbasol Semifinalists
Jacob Arnett, Oglethorpe
Jared Chinn, Methodist
Mark Connelly, Huntingdon
Laurence Courtney, Kenyon
Chris Drysdale, Methodist
Zach Evens, Guilford
Josh Gibson, Hope
Larkin Gross, Methodist
Emmet Herb, St. Thomas
Sam Hill, UT Tyler
Ryan Isaacson, Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Lance Keiser, Ferrum
Colin Laszlo, Wittenberg
Jason Li, Carnegie-Mellon
Ryan McGinley, Concordia (TX)
James Mishoe, Guilford
Ryan Muthiora, Kenyon
Conner O'Neil, Illinois Wesleyan
Tommy Oliver, Sewanee
Sam Olson, Saint John's (MN)
Matt Organisak, Emory
Cade Osgood, Southwestern (TX)
Brian Peccie, Washington & Lee
Will Rosenfield, Trinity (CT)
Jonathan Shaw, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
Stephen Shephard, Huntingdon
Pete Sienko, St. Thomas
Tyler Uhlig, UT Tyler
Ben Van Scoyk, Calvin
Logan Young, Concordia (TX)