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NORMAN, Okla. – UWF head men's golf coach Steve Fell was selected as an inductee into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame on Thursday.
 
Fell, who is in his 24th year his alma mater, is joined in the class of 2017 by Dr. Garland Allen of Gardner-Webb, Paul Chavez of Odessa College, Conrad Ray of Stanford and Golfstat founder Mark Laesch. Allen and Laesch will be honored posthumously. The group will be officially inducted at the GCAA Hall of Fame Reception and Awards Banquet Monday, Dec. 11 in Las Vegas.
 
To be selected to the Hall of Fame, a coach must be nominated by his peers, and then selected by the GCAA Hall of Fame Committee. Selection criteria not only includes a coach's record on the golf course, but their contributions to the game, student-athletes and school.
 
"I'm still a little in shock and at a loss for words," Fell said. "It's all about working on the strengths and weaknesses of each player. I've just tried to do the best I can with what I have and every year we've tried to build on previous years. I think we've done a lot of really good things but it just blows my mind that I'm going to be in the national golf coaches hall of fame."
 
Fell has led UWF to the NCAA Division II National Championship in 2001 and 2008, in addition to four NCAA South Region titles. The Argonauts have won 75 team titles and 53 individual medalist awards under his direction. The biggest of those individual awards came when Orjan Larsen and Chandler Blanchet won the individual national championship in 1998 and 2017, respectively.
 
Fell has been named the GCAA National Coach of the year three times. Those came following the NCAA team titles in 2001 and 2008, and again last year when the Argos won a school-record eight tournaments while spending six ranking periods – including the entire Spring – atop both national polls.
 
Fell has coached 40 All-American players at UWF, and 72 have earned All-GSC honors. He has guided some of the most accomplished student-athletes in GSC history across all sports, including GSC Commissioner's Trophy winner Kevin Warrick and first team GSC All-Decade Team golfers Bryan Clarke and Matthew Galloway.
 
Fell tutored multiple players who advanced to the next level. Stuart Manley saw time playing on the European Tour, and Warrick was the low amateur at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. Meanwhile, David Lingmerth competed on the PGA Nationwide TOUR, the PGA TOUR and 2016 Olympics, and Matthew Galloway has seen time at the PGA TOUR Q-School and was a finalist on Golf Channel's "Big Break Mexico" in 2013.

Outside of his college coaching experience, Fell was also named the coach of Team USA in 2002 and led the United States to victory at the 27th Annual Fuji Xerox USA vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championship.

Fell graduated from West Florida in 1991 following a successful career as a student-athlete. After graduating he won the 1991 Pensacola News Journal Amateur Championship. The following year, he became a PGA apprentice at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, home of THE PLAYERS Championship. In 1988, Fell captured medalist honors at the U.S. Amateur sectional and faced national competition when he competed in the U.S. Amateur Championship.