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Nick Clinard Hometown: Gastonia, N.C. Position: Head Coach

Eleven-year head coaching veteran Nick Clinard enters his fourth season as head coach of the Auburn men's golf team. Under the direction of Clinard, the Tigers have earned 11 team and 11 indivual titles while bringing in the strongest recruiting classes the Tigers have seen in years.

After two events in the 2011-12 season, Clinard saw his team earn the No. 1 ranking in the Coaches' Poll, marking the first time the Tigers topped the poll since its inception in 2001 and the first time Auburn recieved a No. 1 ranking since the fall of 1996.

Clinard's first three and a half seasons on The Plains made up the most successful three and a half year span in Auburn Golf history, with 11 team wins and 11 individual medalists. The Tigers won back-to-back titles at the Chris Schenkel Invitational in 2010 and 2011 while besting the field at the 2010 Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate. The Tigers have also claimed wins at the 2010 Tiger Shootout, 2011 UK Bluegrass Invitational, 2011 Carpet Capital Collegiate, 2012 Gator Invitational, 2012 Hootie at Bulls Bay, the 2012 McLaughlin, the 2012 Mobile Bay Intercollegiate and the 2013 Samford Intercollegiate. Under the direction of Clinard the Tigers have posted a .785 winning percentage and have finished in the top-3 25 times.

In his first two recruiting classes, Clinard signed a pair of recruits ranked top-10 in the world - Sweden's Niclas Carlsson and Michael Johnson of Birmingham, Ala. Clinard has also signed the No. 1 recruit out the state of Alabama two seasons in a row in Michael Johnson and Ryan Benton.

Since coming to Auburn, Clinard has coached 10 All-SEC, nine NCAA All-Southeast Regionand three All-America selections. Blayne Barber, who transfered from Central Florida following the departure of Clinard, was named 2011 Second Team All-American and 2012 First Team All-American while Dominic Bozzelli was named to the 2012 All-American Honorable Mention Team.

As swing coach for Barber, Clinard helped the Lake City, Fla., native become just the second golfer in school history to earn the honor of representing the United States at the Walker Cup. Barber also represented the United States at the 2011 and 2012 Palmer Cup.

In 2009-10, Kyle Kopsick was named Second Team All-SEC while David Zickler was named to the All-Freshman team. Alongside Barber in 2010-11, Michael Hebert was named Second Team All-SEC while Niclas Carlsson was named All-Freshman after he became to first freshman since Jimmy Green in 1988 to earn individual medalist honors.

Clinard has 19 tournament victories including two conference championships, coached four All-Americans, six Academic All-Americans, two conference players of the year, three individual conference champions and 16 all-conference selections. UCF won the NCAA Southeast Regional title by defeating No. 2 Georgia and No. 13 South Carolina in 2009 along with claiming the school's first Conference USA Championship. The Knights also won The Hummingbird Intercollegiate and the Rio Pinar Invitational as Clinard was named Conference USA Coach of the Year and the NCAA Southeast Regional Coach of the Year.

Clinard played professional golf for five seasons from 1996-2001 on the NGA Hooters Tour as well as several Nike Tour and Canadian Tour events prior to becoming head coach of UCF. He was also the assistant tournament director of the Jim McLean Future Collegians World Tour from 1998-2001 and worked as an assistant golf professional at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in McKinney, Texas, from 1997-2000.

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.

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