The number 12 golf recruit in the state of Georgia last year ended up picking Georgia Southern as the place that would be his home for the next four years.

Wilson Andress, the freshman from Macon, Georgia, started playing golf, as well as other sports, at a very young age and he soon knew that golf was his passion.

“When I was younger my dad and I always played a lot,” said Andress. “Starting in sixth grade, I kind of got interested in golf and that’s when I started playing, right after I got done with travel ball and All-Stars [baseball] that summer, that’s when I got serious and I quit baseball after sixth grade and I just focused on golf.”

Andress knew that he wanted to play golf early on, even before high school. During his seventh grade year, it was time for baseball tryouts and he shot that down immediately.

“I told my dad that I didn’t want to do that,” said Andress. “I wanted to play college golf instead.”

With that strong mindset, he continued to play golf throughout high school and did indeed perform well enough to consider playing on the collegiate level.

When looking at schools, Andress considered others, but felt at home at GS.

“Once I visited here I really liked it,” said Andress. “The coaches were awesome, the players, everyone here, is an awesome fit.”

With only a few tournaments under his belt at GS, Andress has performed well this season and had a few success stories.

He has had two top 10 finishes, one being at the Hummingbird Intercollegiate Tournament in Cashiers, North Carolina, finishing T7 and the other being at the AutoTrader Collegiate Classic in Duluth, Georgia, finishing T4.

At the AutoTrader Collegiate Classic, Andress finished nine under par and accumulated 17 birdies. He shot 70-68-69 on the tournament, ending with a total of 207.

With so much room to grow and time to do it, Andress has a promising future playing golf as a GS Eagle and fans are already wondering what his next step might be, maybe even playing golf professionally.

“People have asked me that, but I don’t know for sure,” said Andress. “We’re just going to see how golf goes over the next few years, but definitely the plan is to focus on school.”

With that mindset, Andress will have his head focused on golf but also in the books as a Civil Engineering major.

The GS Eagles have definitely added a strong asset to the team with Andress and fans are ready to see where he will be and where his team will be later on in the season, as well as years to come.

Bethany-Grace Bowers, The George-Anne Assisstant Sports Editor, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu