Paolini, a senior psychology major, is a four-time All-ACC Academic, a two-time All-ACC team honoree and the 2013 recipient of the Byron Nelson Award as the nation's top senior collegiate player. The Virginia Beach, Va., native was named to the PING All-America second team by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) after leading Duke to a school-record five tournament victories, including the 2013 ACC Championship. Paolini had an outstanding senior season, finishing with the second-best single season stroke average (71.48) in school history and closed out the season ranked 22nd in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.
Paolini was also named a third team CoSIDA at-large Academic All-America become the first player in Duke history to earn All-America and Academic All-America honors in the same season.
Teammates joined Paolini on the All-ACC Academic team were Julian Suri, Adam Sumrall and rising sophomore Mads Soegaard. Suri nabbed academic accolades for the fourth time, while Sumrall is a two-time selection.
Seven golfers who earned All-ACC honors this season secured spots on the 2013 All-ACC Academic Men's Golf Team: Duke’s Paolini, Georgia Tech's Anders Albertson and Ollie Schniederjans, Florida State’s Hank Lebioda, Maryland’s Sean Bosdosh, Virginia Tech’s Scott Vincent and Wake Forest’s Evan Beck.
In addition to Paolini and Suri, two other golfers – Wake Forest’s Evan Beck and Clemson’s Crawford Reeves – are four-time academic honorees. Earning all-academic recognition for a third time are Georgia Tech’s Bo Andrews, Virginia Tech’s Bruce Chalkley, Wake Forest’s Charles Harrison. In all, a total of 14 golfers are repeat honorees from the 2012 All-ACC Academic team.
Ten of the 11 ACC schools that compete in men’s golf are represented on this year's academic Team. Clemson, Duke and Georgia Tech led the way with four honorees. Virginia Tech and Wake Forest claimed three players each while Florida State and North Carolina both placed two players. Boston College, Maryland and Virginia landed one player each to complete the team.
The ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year award was established in September 2007 to be awarded annually to the top junior or senior student-athlete in their respective sports. Candidates for the award must have maintained a 3.0 grade point average for their career as well as a 3.0 for each of the last two semesters.
To be eligible for consideration for the All-ACC Academic team, a student-athlete, regardless of classification, must have earned a 3.00 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during his academic career.
2013 All-ACC Academic Men’s Golf Team
Anders Albertson, So., Georgia Tech**
Bo Andrews, Sr., Georgia Tech**
Patrick Bailey, So., North Carolina**
Evan Beck, Sr., Wake Forest****
Stephen Behr, So., Clemson
Stephen Bosdosh, Sr., Maryland**
Miller Capps, Fr., Clemson
Bruce Chalkley, Jr., Virginia Tech***
Ryan Coughlin, Gr., Boston College
Charles Harrison, Sr., Wake Forest***
Maclain Huge, Fr., Virginia Tech
William Kennerly, So., Clemson**
Hank Lebioda, Fr., Florida State
Doug Letson, Sr., Florida State**
Mac McLaughlin, Sr., Virginia
Brinson Paolini, Sr., Duke****
Crawford Reeves, Sr., Clemson****
Seth Reeves, Sr., Georgia Tech
Andrew Sajevic, Jr., North Carolina
Ollie Schniederjans, So., Georgia Tech**
Mads Soegaard, Fr., Duke
Adam Sumrall, Sr., Duke**
Julian Suri, Sr., Duke****
Scott Vincent, So., Virginia Tech**
Davis Womble, Fr., Wake Forest
**denotes two-time selection
***denotes three-time selection
****denotes four-time selection
