SILVIS, Ill. — The College of Coastal Georgia men's golf team wrapped up its 2025–26 season this week at the 74th Annual NAIA Men's Golf National Championship, held May 12–15 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois. The Mariners entered the championship ranked No. 10 in the nation — part of a historic spring in which all five of CCGA's spring sports programs qualified for their respective NAIA national tournaments simultaneously for the first time in program history.
Despite arriving with one of the most decorated individual rosters in the field, the Mariners were unable to survive the 36-hole cut, finishing 22nd out of 29 teams with a two-round score of +44. The challenging par-70 layout at TPC Deere Run — a PGA-owned facility along the bluffs of the Mississippi River — proved difficult for teams throughout the field, and Coastal Georgia was unable to string together the consistent team scoring needed to advance to the final two rounds.
Juarbe Competes on the National Stage
Junior Antonio Juarbe headlined the Mariners' championship week, arriving at TPC Deere Run as the No. 1-ranked individual player in all of NAIA golf — the top spot he held throughout the final stretch of the regular season. The Jasper, Georgia native had an extraordinary junior campaign, winning the individual title at the Blue Mountain Spring Classic earlier this spring and carrying a career résumé that already included a third-place individual finish at nationals during his freshman season in 2024.
That freshman performance earned Juarbe Third-Team All-American honors from the NAIA Men's Golf Coaches' Association, and his 2025–26 season only built further on that foundation. Throughout the year, Juarbe posted a scoring average that kept him atop the national individual rankings, with the consistency and firepower to compete with anyone in the association.
Juarbe's accomplishments this season extended well beyond the course. He was named a finalist for the 2026 NAIA Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Workday — one of college golf's most prestigious individual honors, presented annually to the top player at the NAIA level. The winner will be announced by Jack Nicklaus himself on June 7 during the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Juarbe was also named an NAIA All-American, cementing his status as one of the premier players in small-college golf.
Glanton Contributes Through Adversity
Sophomore Gates Glanton showed growth throughout the season and provided contributions to the Mariners' lineup at the national championship. He finished tied for 43rd as an individual, shooting +17 for the week. Glanton, who demonstrated a pattern of improvement as rounds progressed throughout the spring — including a strong closing round at the Blue Mountain Spring Classic — continued to gain experience competing at the highest level of NAIA golf. His development as a young piece of the Mariners' roster figures to be an important storyline heading into next season.
A Season Worth Celebrating
While the team result at nationals fell short of expectations for a program that entered ranked in the top ten, the 2025–26 season represented genuine progress on multiple fronts for Coastal Georgia men's golf. The Mariners won a spring tournament title at Kinderlou Forest, fielded the No. 1-ranked individual player in the country, and placed a player among the finalists for the NAIA's highest individual honor.
The program's ability to attract and develop talent like Juarbe — a homegrown player from Jasper who has now earned All-American recognition and a Jack Nicklaus Award finalist nod — speaks to the competitive culture that head coach and staff have built in Brunswick. With Juarbe set to return for his senior season and the program's recruiting pipeline intact, the Mariners appear well-positioned to contend again in 2026–27.
The NAIA National Championship was part of what has become a landmark spring for Coastal Georgia athletics, with the program simultaneously sending all five spring sports — men's golf, women's golf, men's tennis, women's tennis, and softball — to their respective national tournaments for the first time ever. Whatever the on-course result at TPC Deere Run, the men's golf program played its part in making history for the Mariners.
