Former Stanhope Elmore standout Josiah Gilbert earns Auburn golf honors

Josiah Gilbert’s rise from Stanhope Elmore to Auburn has turned Millbrook into part of a national championship story. The junior from Millbrook, Alabama, is now listed on Auburn’s 2025-26 men’s golf roster with PING All-Southeast Region honors for 2026, first-team All-SEC recognition in 2026 and an SEC Golfer of the Week award from October 2024. He also helped Auburn win its second NCAA men’s golf title in three seasons.

Gilbert’s Auburn résumé began quickly. Auburn’s 2024 SEC awards release said he made the SEC All-Freshman Team, joining a roster that won the SEC Championship and Auburn’s first NCAA men’s golf national title. By the end of his sophomore season, Auburn’s 2025 honors releases had him on second-team All-SEC and second-team All-American lists, with both PING and Golfweek naming him a second-team All-American. Auburn also counted him among its 2025 PING All-Americans, alongside Carson Bacha, Jackson Koivun and Brendan Valdes.

His junior season brought another jump. Auburn’s 2026 postseason honors release said Gilbert earned first-team All-SEC for the first time in his career after previously making the second team and the All-Freshman Team. It also said he started every tournament, finished with six top-20s, four top-10s and two wins, putting him among the most reliable players on a team loaded with national names such as Koivun and Cayden Pope.

The hometown connection is what makes Gilbert’s run resonate in Millbrook and across Autauga County. Elmore-Autauga News reported that his second-place finish in the 2023 AHSAA Class 6A state tournament was the best ever by a Stanhope Elmore golfer. That finish gave the Mustangs a benchmark, and Auburn has since turned it into a college pipeline success story that local golfers can measure in real results: state contention, SEC honors and national titles.

Auburn’s latest championship run added another layer. The Tigers finished first in stroke play for the first time in program history before beating UCLA in the 2026 championship match, and Auburn had already won its 2024 title by beating Florida State at the same venue. Gilbert’s selection to Team USA for the 2025 and 2026 Arnold Palmer Cups underscores how far that Millbrook-to-Auburn path has carried him.