MACON, Ga. – The Jacksonville University men's golf team continues to make waves this year with the announcement of Russell Knox's selection to the ASUN Conference Hall of Fame.
The professional golfer joins a star-studded 2017 class that includes fellow Scotsman and European Tour golfer Colin Montgomerie (Houston Baptist), former baseball standout Chris Westervelt (Stetson), and softball champions Keri McKee Cortolano (Kennesaw State) and Nicole Myers (Florida Atlantic).
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The class marks the third consecutive year a JU alum has been inducted into the ASUN Hall of Fame as Knox joins Major League Baseball All-Star Daniel Murphy (2016) and track and field All-American Monique Tubbs (2015). All three are also JU Athletic Hall of Famers.
"First and foremost, Russell Knox is a great, incredibly humble person," said Jacksonville Director of Athletics Alex Ricker-Gilbert. " He loves and supports JU, and understands that he has a big impact on us and is willing to do a lot for us and trumpet what we have going on. I think he was a big part of our recent success because he was engaged with our program and our institution.
"It is an incredible and unique honor to have a Dolphin alum inducted into the ASUN Hall of Fame in each of the past three classes. The accolade speaks volumes about the student-athletes we have here at Jacksonville University. We couldn't be more proud of their successes and accomplishments."
In his first season at Jacksonville, the Inverness, Scotland, native led the Dolphins in four of seven events en route to a 2004 ASUN All-Freshman honor. Knox went on to garner second team accolades a year later, and captured a heightened level of success in 2006 where he was selected to the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) All-American Team and was also a Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar, eclipsing the requirements of at least a 3.2 cumulative grade point average and under a 76.0 stroke average for Division I play.
That same season, he helped lead Jacksonville to the ASUN Championship in record fashion and finished runner-up to teammate Duncan Stewart in a two-hole playoff for individual medalist honors.
Knox was named ASUN First Team All-Conference in both 2006 and 2007, finished the former ranked 12th in the nation, and was selected to be a member of the Scottish National Team for the European Youth Championships. His 71.74 strokes per round average, set in the 2005-06 season, and his career average of 72.85, both remain lowest in JU golf history.
After graduating, Knox turned professional and joined the Hooters Tour where he won twice.
In 2011, he joined the Nationwide Tour where he picked up a win and finished 12th on the money list to earn himself a PGA Tour card. His first PGA Tour event was scheduled for that same year, and in 2012, he made 12 cuts in 23 starts. He played both the PGA Tour and the Web.com Tour in 2013, and in July, he shot 59 in the Albertsons Boise Open and made the Web.com finals to earn a full PGA Tour card for the 2014 season.
Knox has five wins as a professional, including a pair on the PGA Tour last season, and has earned 15 top-10 finishes with a high of 10th in the FedEx Cup Standings since 2014. He qualified for the FedEx Cup playoffs again in 2015 and in November of 2016 won the World Golf Championship HSBC Championship in Shanghai, China, becoming the first Scot to win a WGC event. In 2016, he was also named the Scottish Player of the Year.
He currently places 55th in FedEx Cup rankings and 39th in World Golf rankings.
Knox is an avid supporter of St. Jude Children's Hospital and Blessings in a Backpack, and was inducted into the Jacksonville University Hall of Fame in 2014. He graduated from Jacksonville University in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
The Hall of Fame's third annual induction ceremony will take place on October 16, on the campus of ASUN member New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, N.J.