NORMAN, Okla. –Three Penn State men's golf student-athletes, recent graduates Alec Bard and Ryan Davis and rising senior Lou Olsakovsky were named 2020 Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-American Scholars. Presented annually by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA), the Nittany Lions are included among the 376 NCAA Division I honorees to recognize their efforts in the classroom and on the golf course. In all, it was a record setting year for the award as 614 student-athletes earned the title of All-America Scholar, the most since the awards inception in 1982.
For the fourth time in program history, the annual list included three Nittany Lions.
"These three student-athletes consistently prioritize their efforts to excel in both academics and their sport," said Penn State men's golf coach Greg Nye. "They have exceeded a very high bar set by the GCAA to be honored with this distinction. We play a schedule that involves significant travel through both semesters, so it takes a special person to get it all done at a high level."
Thirty-four Penn Staters have earned All-America Scholar accolades since the GCAA instituted the award in recognition, 32 during Nye's era. Bard and Davis are two-time GCAA selections with a total of 14 Nittany Lions who now hold that distinction.
To earn All-America Scholar status, students must be a junior or senior in academic standing and have maintained a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.2. On the course, the honorees much have competed at the collegiate level for at least three full seasons and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competitive rounds with a stroke average under 76.0.
In addition to the academic and competitive requirements, recipients must also be of high moral character and in good collegiate standing.
Three-time Academic All-Big Ten selections, Bard and Davis graduated in May 2020 and will return to the program for their final year of eligibility after the 2020 spring portion of the season was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bard earned a degree in marketing and will pursue a master's of business administration while Davis earned a degree in finance and will pursue a master's in corporate finance. Olsakovsky, studying economics, earned his first Academic All-Big Ten nod following the 2019-20 season.
Bard posted his best season stroke average in seven events in the shortened 2019-20 season at 72.38 and was the team's top finisher in the 2019 UNCG/Grandover Collegiate. From New Hartford, N.Y., Bard shot a career-low 209 at the 2019 Old Town Club Collegiate, a scorecard that included a 67 to tie his career best.
A 2020 first-team All-Big Ten Conference and four-time all-Northeast Region selection, Davis led the Nittany Lions in five of the seven events in the abbreviated season and shot under par in four tournaments. The Berkeley Heights, N.J., resident tied his career-best tournament score of 207 at the Florida Gators Invitational in February 2020 after setting the mark in fall 2019. His share of the fourth-place finish in the Florida Gators event gave him his seventh top-five finish of his career.
From Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania, Olsakovsky helped the Nittany Lions to their first of five top-five team finishes when he tied for 13th in the Rod Myers Invitational. He tied his career-low round of 67 in the 2019 UNCG/Grandover Collegiate.
To view the complete list of the 2020 Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholars, click here.
For the latest updates on the team follow @PennStateMGolf on Twitter, "like" the Penn State Men's Golf page on Facebook, and follow head coach Greg Nye on Instagram @CoachNyePSU.
