NORMAN, Okla. – Fighting Illini men's golfers Adrien Dumont de Chassart and Tommy Kuhl were honored by the Golf Coaches Association of America on Wednesday (May 31) when they were each recognized as PING First-Team All-Americans.  

The fifth-year senior duo are among 11 golfers honored as the sport's best in 2023, making Illinois the only program in the nation with two competitors listed on the first team.

Dumont de Chassart and Kuhl become the eighth and ninth golfers in program history to earn First-Team All-America honors. Overall, Illinois golfers have now been named First-Team All-America by the GCAA 10 times, with Illini legend Steve Stricker earning back-to-back accolades in 1988 and 1989. Each of the remaining First-Team All-Americans in program history have come under the guidance of head coach Mike Small with Dumont de Chassart and Kuhl joining program greats Scott Langley (2010), Luke Guthrie (2011), Thomas Pieters (2012), Charlie Danielson (2016), Dylan Meyer (2017), and Nick Hardy (2018).  

Dumont de Chassart, the three-time Big Ten Golfer of the Year, was selected as a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten honoree for the second straight year in 2023, and also earned his fourth All-Big Ten championship team nod. A finalist for both the Haskins and Nicklaus Awards, he is now a three-time All-America selection by the GCAA, having also earned second-team honors in both 2021 and 2022. A native of Villers la Ville, Belgium, Dumont de Chassart was presented with his second straight Les Bolstad Award as the Big Ten golfer with the league's best stroke average through the conference championship; His average of 69.63 was the lowest mark on record since the Bolstad Award's inception in 1974, and he closed the season this week with a mark of 69.56, breaking his own program record established last season. Dumont de Chassart also finishes as the program's career-leader with an average of 70.82. He captured his fourth collegiate victory this season at the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate, and help the Illini post a nation-leading seven team tournament wins overall. He also notched top-16 finishes all 13 stroke play events on the year, culminating with a tie for seventh at the NCAA Championship to also earn NCAA All-America status (top 15).  He closed as Illinois top finisher in a team-leading six tournaments in 2023 and tied for the team lead with 29 (out of 39) rounds at par or better, including 18 rounds in the 60s.

Kuhl secures his first All-America nod from the GCAA in 2023. He also secured back-to-back all-region nods, won two straight first-team All-Big Ten honors including a unanimous selection in 2023, and was named a finalist for the Haskins Award. The Morton, Ill., native continued to build off of his stellar 2021-22 season, to again ranks among the nation's top performers. He finished second on the team with a season stroke average of 70.12, a mark that now ranks third all-time at Illinois behind Dumont de Chassart's record marks from each of the last two years. Kuhl placed as the Illini's top finisher in five events this season, the second-most on the team, and posted 13 consecutive top-16 finishes, including a tie for seventh to also earn NCAA All-America status (top-15) at the 2023 NCAA Championship earlier this week. Kuhl, who has been selected to represent Team USA at the 2023 Arnold Palmer Cup, shot a career-low-tying score of 65 (-6) in the final round of the Hal Williams Collegiate, to finish with a career-low 54-hole total of 203 (-10) and earn the best finish (T2nd) of his career as an Illini. He then matched his career-low in the second round of the 2023 Big Ten Championship at Galloway National Golf Club, en route to a tie for third (bronze medalist) and a spot on the All-Big Ten Championship team. He finishes the year tied for the team lead with 29 of 39 rounds at par or better and ranks second with 15 rounds in the 60s.

Both Dumont de Chassart and Kuhl returned to the Illini in 2022-23 as fifth-year seniors, and after narrowly missing out on advancing through regionals to the NCAA Championship last year, they led the Orange and Blue to as high as No. 2 in the national rankings, the team's eighth straight Big Ten Championship, and a No. 3 seed in the 2023 NCAA Championship. Behind the duo, the Illini concluded their season Tuesday in the NCAA match play quarterfinals to secure a fifth-place tie for the Orange and Blue in the final NCAA Championship standings, the program's eighth top-five national finish under Small since the current format was adopted in 2009 - a mark that ranks second nationally.

Division I PING All-America First Team

• Ludvig Åberg, Texas Tech
• Fred Biondi, Florida
• Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Illinois
• David Ford, North Carolina
• Ben James, Virginia
• Tommy Kuhl, Illinois
• Christo Lamprecht, Georgia Tech
• Gordon Sargent, Vanderbilt
• Preston Summerhays, Arizona State
• Caleb Surratt, Tennessee
• Michael Thorbjornsen, Stanford