(portions courtesy of Golf Coaches Association of America)

NORMAN, OKLA. — Coastal Carolina men's golfer Dustin Johnson (Lexington, S.C./Dutch Fork) has been chosen to be a member of the United States Team for the 2006 Fuji Xerox U.S.A. vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championship by the Golf Coaches Association of America. The 12-member squad will consist of eight men’s and four women’s collegiate players. The 31st annual competition will be held July 13-15 at Sun Hills Country Club in Japan’s Tochigi prefecture.

The junior is impressive in the individual rankings in both GolfWeek and Golfstat. Johnson is currently 11th in the nation according to GolfWeek and 14th in the Golfstat Cup . The junior is currently leading the Chants in scoring average at 71.77 strokes per round, posting top-20 finishes in 10 of his 11 events this year, including three first-place and six top-five finishes.

Joining Johnson on the U.S. squad are Amanda Blumenherst of Duke, South Carolina-Aiken’s Scott Brown, Colin Clark of Guilford, Southern California’s Irene Cho, Alex Coe of Pepperdine, Northwestern’s Dillon Dougherty, Andrew Dresser of Texas Tech, BYU’s Jake Ellison and Erik Flores, Tiffany Joh and Jane Park of UCLA.

The American team boasts five conference players of the year - Johnson (Big South), Blumenherst (ACC), Brown (Peach Belt), Cho (Pac-10) and Ellison (MWC). Additionally, Blumenherst and Brown claimed their individual league title while Flores and Joh were named Pac-10 freshmen of the year. All 12 members Team USA were named all-conference.