Tuesday, July 30, 2019
by Western Washington Athletic Communications

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Western Washington University men’s golfer Michael Butler has been named a Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar for the 2018-19 season, marking the second consecutive season to earn the award from the Golf Coaches Association of America.

Butler was one of just 113 NCAA Division II men’s golfers and the only player from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference to be named to the All-America Scholar Team. It was a record-setting year for the award as 540 student-athletes earned the title of All-America Scholar across collegiate golf, the most since the award's inception in 1982.

To be eligible for Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar status an individual must be a junior or senior academically, compete in at least three full years at the collegiate level, participate in 50-percent of his team’s competitive rounds, have a stroke-average under 79.0 (for Division II) 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 his college or university.

Butler carries a cumulative 3.46 GPA as he closes in on his degree in accounting and management information systems. During his academic career, he has earned three GNAC All-Academic awards and a spot on the 2018-19 Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 At-Large Team.

On the course, Butler was a three-time All-GNAC selection, including being named the conference Freshman of the Year in 2015-16 and a first-team all-conference honoree as a senior in 2018-19. During his senior season in 2018-19 he appeared in nine of WWU's 11 tournaments, recording a scoring average of 72.62 (+0.73 to par) and 11 rounds of par or better.

In four years with the program, Butler played 99 career rounds with a 73.76 scoring average (+2.14 to par), 11th-best in program history.

Butler is one of five WWU men’s golfer to earn the All-America Scholar Award (dating back to available records since 2003) and the second two-time award winner. He joins Sean Packer (2007), Xavier Dailly (2010-11), Brian Barhanovich (2011) and Evan Needham (2013).