Noll gets GSGA honor

From Staff Reports

David Noll Jr. of Dalton captured his third-straight and fifth overall Georgia State Golf Association Men’s Player of the Year award in 2009 with five strong performances on the state level.

Noll received the honor at the GSGA’s Players of the Year Luncheon, held at Cherokee Town Club in Atlanta on Saturday.

Only current Champions Tour player Allen Doyle owns more, with seven Player of the Year titles from 1983-92.

Noll started the season by tying for seventh at the Georgia Four-Ball Championship with partner Doug Green, marking their fourth top-10 finish in the last five years. With a tie for eighth at the Georgia Mid-Amateur Championship, Noll posted his fourth-straight and sixth overall top-10 finish in that event.

In the Georgia Amateur Championship, Noll, the 2003 champion, finished runner-up to defending champion Russell Henley, marking his fifth-consecutive top-6 finish in the state’s most prestigious amateur event. In the Georgia Open, Noll tied for low amateur honors, finishing 11th overall.

Noll successfully defended his title at the Atlanta Amateur Match Play Championship, becoming the first golfer in a decade to do so and just the seventh player in the 91-year history of the tournament to capture three titles. He won his first Atlanta Amateur in 2005.

Noll also represented the GSGA in the biennial Billy Peters Cup Matches and led his Dalton Golf and Country Club team to their second Georgia Team Championship in three years.

On the women’s side, three golfers were selected as the shared recipients of the 2009 Tommy Barnes Award after capturing a national championship for the state of Georgia. Dori Carter of Valdosta, Laura Coble of Augusta and Mariah Stackhouse of Riverdale teamed up to win the USGA Women’s State Team Championship at Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne, Ind., last September.