Coastal MGOLF Adds Graduate Transfer Wes Artac
6/25/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
CONWAY - Coastal Carolina head men's golf coach Jim Garren announced Wes Artac, a graduate transfer from Texas Tech, has signed with the Chanticleers for the 2018-19 season.
Artac played three seasons with the Red Raiders, redshirted his junior season (2016-17) and graduated this past May with a degree in finance. While at Texas Tech, Artac was his team's top scorer at the 2016 Big 12 Championship and 2015 NCAA Lubbock Regional. He was named to the 2015 Big 12 Championship All-Tournament team and he earned Academic All-Big 12 honors twice (first team in 2016 and second team in 2018).
The Kingwood, Texas, native additionally qualified for 2016 U.S. Amateur Championship and is coming off a seventh-place finish at the 2018 Texas Amateur where he carded rounds of 70-72-75-74.
"This is a big pickup for us," Garren said. "He is coming here knowing he only has one year left to compete, so he will come in focused and ready to work. Wes has played at the highest level of collegiate golf and adding someone with his experience is huge, not only for our young guys but our returners as well.
"Our schedule this year will look a lot different than what our guys have been accustomed to," Garren added. "Wes has played in the high-level events like we have this upcoming season and is comfortable against that type of competition. Our goal for Wes is to help elevate us to the next level. We have a couple of all-conference guys back from last year and Wes needs to push those guys to get them better. As important, he will be a good fit within our program and the guys are looking forward to him joining us.
Artac played in 20 events in his three years at Tech and averaged 74.16 strokes over his 62 career rounds. Among his four top 20 finishes was placing 10th at the 2015 Big 12 Championship and 11th at the 2016 Big 12 Championship.
"I think this addition shows just how far we have come as a program over the last year," Garren said. "You are looking at a guy who won the 2016 Saguaro Amateur and had a pair of top 10 finishes at some two prestigious collegiate events. The fact that he chose to come to Coastal speaks volumes about our program, University, staff and team."
In Garren's first season at Coastal Carolina, he was tabbed the Sun Belt Coach of the Year as the Chanticleers won the conference championship and reached an NCAA Regional as a team for the first time since 2013 this past spring. Coastal will return 2018 Sun Belt individual medalist Morgan Deneen as well as two-time All-Sun Belt pick Luis Ruiz.
