Five Golfers Honored as Cobalt Golf All-America Scholars

Five SIUE golfers have earned recognition as Cobalt Golf All-America Scholars by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA). Anthony Ruthey, TJ Baker, Alex Eickhoff, Brady Kaufmann and Luke Ludwig have each been named a Cobalt Golf All-America Scholar.

Ruthey becomes the Cougars' first four-time honoree. Baker is receiving the award for the third time. Eickhoff and Ludwig are two-time honorees.

Since SIUE first became eligible for the Division I award, 26 Cougars have been honored as All-America Scholars.

To be eligible for Cobalt Golf All-America Scholar nomination, an individual must be a sophomore, junior or senior both academically and athletically in NCAA Division I, II, III, and NAIA, or receiving their Associate's Degree and in their last year of athletic eligibility in the NJCAA. In addition, they must participate in 50% of their team's competitive rounds, have a stroke average under 76.0 in NCAA Division I, under 78.0 in NCAA Division II, under 79.0 in NCAA Division III, under 78.0 in NAIA, and under 77.0 in NJCAA, and maintain a minimum cumulative career grade-point average of 3.2. A recipient must also be of high moral character and be in good standing at their college or university.

531 NCAA Division I athletes from 180 schools earned 2023-24 Cobalt Golf All-America Scholar honors. Georgia Southern, Mercer, Texas Tech, and Yale each had six recipients, tied with Missouri S&T (NCAA Division II), Trine (NCAA Division III), and Texas Wesleyan (NAIA) for the most recipients from one school across all six divisions in 2023-24. 25 NCAA Division I schools had at least five recipients, including Cal Poly (5), California Baptist (5), Duke (5), Georgia Southern (6), Idaho (5), Illinois State (5), Long Island (5), Marquette (5), Marshall (5), Mercer (6), Michigan (5), Missouri State (5), Pacific (5), Southern Illinois (5), SIUE (5), St. Thomas (MN) (5), Texas Tech (6), Toledo (5), UNCG (5), UT Martin (5), Texas State (5), Vanderbilt (5), Villanova (5), Wyoming (5), and Yale (6).

PHOTO: Anthony Ruthey, TJ Baker, Alex Eickhoff, Brady Kaufmann and Luke Ludwig