Birdies and Books: Five Eckerd Tritons Named All-America Scholars

Five Tritons, credit where it’s due

Golf has a lovely way of making a competent person feel completely unqualified to hold a stick. College coursework has its own methods. Managing both well enough to earn national recognition? That deserves more than a polite golf clap.

Five Eckerd Tritons have been named Cobalt Golf All-America Scholars for the 2025-26 season by the Golf Coaches Association of America. Josh DiZinno, Thayne Thomas, Reggie Fear, Tyler Van Dusen and Drew Campbell are the names St. Pete should know.

This is not a tournament recap with a dramatic putt doing all the heavy lifting. It’s recognition for handling the golf and the academics together. Less highlight-reel material, perhaps. Plenty worth celebrating.

Around Pinellas, we’re perfectly capable of spending an entire afternoon arguing about somebody’s short game. Here’s a better use of a little of that energy: giving Eckerd’s honorees their due.

The scorecard doesn’t do your homework

The point of this honor is right there in the name. All-America Scholar recognition asks something of both halves of the student-athlete job: performance on the course and a cumulative GPA that meets the academic standard.

The source doesn’t give individual stroke averages or GPAs, so we’re not handing out imaginary report cards. No need. DiZinno, Thomas, Fear, Van Dusen and Campbell earned the recognition. That’s the story, and it stands up just fine without decorative statistics.

Golf is demanding enough when your only obligation afterward is deciding what to eat. Add coursework, and the day doesn’t suddenly grow extra hours because you had trouble getting out of a bunker. The reading still needs reading. A good round isn’t a permission slip to ignore the books.

That’s what makes this worth noticing. A scorecard tells you about the golf. This honor tells you there was meaningful work happening away from it, too.

And while the temptation is to turn the whole thing into a string of calculator-and-club jokes, let’s not sell these guys short. The achievement isn’t that golfers can study. It’s that these five met the demands of both pursuits well enough to land on the GCAA’s list.

A little St. Pete applause travels

Whether your sports conversations happen around a screen in Clearwater, at a tailgate in St. Pete, or with friends in Dunedin or out on the beaches, there’s room for a local story that doesn’t require an argument about officiating.

Eckerd has supplied one. Five golfers, the same recognition, and a reason to pay attention to the work that rarely gets the loudest reaction.

So give DiZinno, Thomas, Fear, Van Dusen and Campbell a nod. Not because we know their next round or their next exam result. We don’t. Because this accomplishment is already in the books—and for once, that phrase works on every level.

Source: Eckerd College Athletics — “Five men's golfers selected GCAA/Cobalt All-America Scholars”

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