AUBURN — Eight-year head coaching veteran Nick Clinard, who led the University of Central Florida to a top 10 finish in the 2009 NCAA Championship, has been named head men's golf coach at Auburn University, athletics director Jay Jacobs announced Sunday.

Clinard led UCF to NCAA Regional play in five of the last six seasons, including 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009, and the Knights have won six tournament titles in the past two seasons. Clinard has nine tournament victories including two conference championships, coached one All-American, four Academic All-Americans, two conference players of the year, three individual conference champions and eight all-conference selections at UCF.

UCF won the NCAA Southeast Regional title by defeating No. 2 Georgia and No. 13 South Carolina this past year along with claiming the school's first Conference USA Championship. The Knights also won The Hummingbird Intercollegiate and the Rio Pinar Invitational as Clinard was named Conference USA Coach of the Year and the NCAA Southeast Regional Coach of the Year.

Clinard played professional golf for five seasons from 1996-2001 on the NGA Hooters Tour as well as several Nike Tour and Canadian Tour events prior to becoming head coach of UCF.

The Gastonia, N.C., native graduated from Wake Forest University in 1995 with a Bachelor's degree in speech communication. He played one year of collegiate golf at SMU before playing his final three years at Wake Forest from 1992-95, where the Demon Deacons were ranked in the top 10 in the nation all three seasons.