Auburn’s Clinard to Coach United States Team at Toyota Junior Golf World Cup

NORMAN, Okla. – Nick Clinard of Auburn will coach the boys team at the 2019 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup. The event will be held June 18-22 on Chukyo Golf Club’s Ishino Course outside Nagoya, Japan.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to coach Team USA in Japan at the Junior Golf World Cup,” said Clinard. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be chosen by the Golf Coaches Association of America. I’m looking forward to getting to Japan, getting to learn my guys, represent the United States and compete for a title.”

Clinard is in his 18th year overall as a head coach and 10th season with the Auburn men’s golf team in 2018-19.

Auburn is one of four teams in the nation - Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas the others - who have made at least seven-straight NCAA Championship appearances.

In his career, Clinard has 42 tournament victories, including three conference championships, coached 12 All-Americans, 17 Academic All-Americans, two conference players of the year, three individual conference champions and 32 all-conference selections.

The 2017-18 Auburn men’s golf team produced its best finish in program history when it tied for third in the country at the NCAA Championships. Freshman Brandon Mancheno tied for medalist honors at the NCAA Championships, tied for the best finish in program history before falling in a playoff.

The Tigers won their fourth Southeastern Conference title and first since 2002 following a 3-2 victory over Alabama during match play at the SEC Championship. Freshman Wells Padgett secured the title with a 20-foot putt on the 18th green in the final match.

Auburn finished with a record of 174-31-7 (.837) and was ranked for the entire 2017-18 season, reaching as high as No. 6 in the nation. The Tigers captured four tournament wins: The All-American, Tiger Invitational, John Hayt Invitational and the SEC Championship. Junior Trace Crowe earned medalist honors at the Gary Koch Invitational, highlighted by a program record-tying round of 63 in the second round.

Mancheno and Jovan Rebula became the first duo to be named PING All-America selections in the same season since 2012 and just the sixth all-time.

For his efforts, Clinard was tabbed as the SEC Coach of the Year, Southeast Golf Pride Grips Region Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year Award presented by Golf Pride Grips. Mancheno was selected as the SEC Freshman of the Year and was a semifinalist for the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Barbasol.

In addition, the Tigers boasted a GPA over 3.0 landing them a 18Birdies All-Academic Team for the ninth consecutive season, all under Clinard.

The Gastonia, N.C., native graduated from Wake Forest University in 1995 with a Bachelor’s degree in speech communication. He played one year of collegiate golf at SMU before playing his final three years at Wake Forest from 1992-95, where the Demon Deacons were ranked in the top 10 in the nation all three seasons. Clinard is married to the former Susan Roberts, and they have two daughters, Chloe and Peyton.