May 5, 2008

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Wake Forest's Webb Simpson has been named the men's golf Player of the Year in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The senior is the first Demon Deacon to win the prestigious Player of the Year award since Bill Haas in 2004.

"I thank God first for the opportunity to play. To win this award is a great feeling," Simpson said. "I've never played well at the ACC Championship. To win it this year and to win Player of the Year is awesome. To be compared to Bill Haas, who was such a great player at Wake Forest, means a lot. I'm just thrilled to death."

Simpson was an automatic qualifier for the All-Conference team based on his win at the ACC Championship and led the conference in stroke average on the season at 70.38 per 18 holes.

"I'm very, very happy for him. He's been a very good player," Wake Forest head coach Jerry Haas said. "One of his goals this season was to win more collegiate events. Losing in the playoff at the River Landing Intercollegiate was good for him. He said he would comeback and he did. To be the Player of the Year is very prestigious."

This marks Simpson's fourth All-ACC selection in his four years at Wake, but this is the senior's first Player of the Year honor. The Raleigh-native won the Freshman of the Year award in 2005.

Simpson has recorded two victories on the year, including a win at the Western Refining All-America Golf Classic where Simpson shot 15-under to win the event by three strokes. Simpson shot a career-low 62 in the first round of the Western Refining, the lowest 18-hole score for any Deacon golfer since 1976.

Simpson won the ACC Championship in April with a five-stroke win over North Carolina's Chase MacFarland and tied for the lead after 54 holes at the River Landing Intercollegiate on April 13 but fell to Duke's Michael Schachner in a sudden-death playoff.

"I just tried to take the positives from River Landing," Simpson said.

Simpson recorded six top 10 finishes out of eight events on the season and is currently in the running for the Ben Hogan Award as a semifinalist and has also been included on the Jack Nicklaus Award watch list.

"Webb has really improved over the years," Haas said. "He's got a good head on his shoulders. He didn't play exceptionally well as a junior, but he proved to everyone this year that he's a great player."

Atlantic Coast Conference Champion Florida State was represented by senior Jonas Blixt and junior Matt Savage, who have now been named to the All-ACC team in each of the last two seasons.

Duke's first-time honorees included senior Michael Schachner and junior Clark Klaasen. Georgia Tech's junior, Cameron Tringale, earned his third straight honor while fellow sophomore teammate, Chesson Hadley, earned his first All-ACC accolade.

Freshman Kevin O'Connell, from North Carolina, was named Freshman of the Year and also secured a spot on the All-ACC team.

Rounding out the 12-member team are Kyle Stanley, a second-straight honoree from Clemson; Matt Hill, a freshman from NC State; senior Jurrian van der Vaart from Virginia Tech and Chris Gold, a junior from the University of Maryland. Van der Vaart is the first Virginia Tech student-athlete to earn All-ACC status in men's golf since the school joined the league in 2004.

Florida State's Trey Jones was named ACC Coach of the Year, his first such honor in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Under Jones, Florida State claimed their first-ever ACC Men's Golf Championship with a three-stroke win over Duke.

2008 All-ACC Men's Golf Team
(Listed alphabetically by school)
Name		   School		Yr	Hometown
Kyle Stanley	   Clemson		So      Gig Harbor, Wash.
Clark Klaasen	   Duke			Jr	Grand Rapids, Mich.
Michael Schachner  Duke			Sr	Libertyville, Ill.
Jonas Blixt	   Florida State	Sr	Hammaro, Sweden
Matt Savage	   Florida State	Jr	Louisville, Ky.
Chesson Hadley	   Georgia Tech		So	Raleigh, N.C.
Cameron Tringale   Georgia Tech		Jr	Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Chris Gold	   Maryland	        Jr	Haddonfield, N.J.
Kevin O'Connell	   North Carolina	Fr	Cary, N.C.
Matt Hill          NC State	        Fr	Bright's Grove, Ontario
J. van der Vaart   Virginia Tech	Sr	Almelo, The Netherlands
Webb Simpson	   Wake Forest		Sr	Raleigh, N.C.

ACC Freshman of the Year
Kevin O'Connell, North Carolina

ACC Coach of the Year
Trey Jones, Florida State