Auburn men’s golf senior J.M. Butler was named to PING’s team of Honorable Mention All-Americans Wednesday, as announced by PING and the GCAA.
A senior season that saw two individual wins, five top-10 finishes, 16 subpar rounds and a 4-1-2 match play record, including the title-clinching point in Auburn’s first NCAA Championship, was enough to snag a spot on the final All-American list.
It is the third straight season Butler has been recognized by PING and the second straight as an honorable mention selection. He joins teammates Jackson Koivun and Brendan Valdes, who were previously named to the first team.
The Louisville, Kentucky native goes down in history as one of two Tigers to earn All-SEC honors all four years of their career. Butler closed his Auburn tenure 10th in program history with 132 rounds played and third with 530 birdies made.
The full list of PING’s First Team, Second Team, Third Team and Honorable Mention All-Americans can be found at CollegiateGolf.com.
In 2023, for the second consecutive season, no team in the SEC had fewer passing yards than Auburn. The Tigers have now finished last in the conference in air yardage four times in the last 12 years — 2012, 2016, 2022 and 2023. In that same time span, they’ve finished in the top half of the league just three times.
Throughout its history, Auburn has been able to build worthy contenders without a high-octane passing game. This program is, at its core, a “run-the-ball-and-play-defense” type of place.
But, the deeper we get into the pass-dominant era of modern football, the less likely it is that a team can truly compete for a championship without that air attack. Over the last five years, 18 of the 20 College Football Playoff teams ranked in the top 25 nationally in passing yards per attempt. Meanwhile, Auburn finished 97th, 88th, 94th, 96th and 95th in that category.
