FORT WORTH, TX (April 12, 2017) - Colonial Country
Club, Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches
Association of America (GCAA) have announced that
nine first-time semifinalists are among the 10
players in contention for the 2017 Ben Hogan Award
presented by Konica Minolta Business Solutions
U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta).
The semifinalists, in alphabetical order, are:
Sam Burns (LSU, So.)
Wyndham Clark (Oregon,
Sr.)
Sean Crocker (USC, Jr.)
Jared du Toit (Arizona State,
Sr.)
Nick Hardy (Illinois, Jr.)
Maverick McNealy
(Stanford, Sr.)
Dylan Meyer (Illinois, Jr.)
Collin Morikawa (California,
So.)
Matthias Schwab
(Vanderbilt, Sr.)
Will Zalatoris (Wake Forest,
Jr.)
McNealy, a two-time award finalist (2015,
2016), is the lone player ever to previously appear
as a semifinalist.
Each semifinalist’s school will once again receive
a scholarship grant for its men’s golf program. Since
2002, more than $500,000 in scholarships has been
awarded to more than two dozen schools.
The Ben Hogan Award is issued annually to the
top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA
college golfer taking into account all collegiate and
amateur competitions during the past 12-month
period. The award’s selection dommittee, which
votes during each stage of the process, is comprised
of 24 leaders and experts in professional, amateur
and collegiate golf.
On Wednesday, May 3, the group will be pared
down to three finalists. The three finalists will then
travel to Fort Worth, Texas, to attend a black-tie
banquet where the winner will be crowned at
Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 22, prior to
the start of the PGA TOUR’s Dean & DeLuca
Invitational.
The Ben Hogan Trophy was first issued in 1990
at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles and included
academic achievement in its original list of
standards. In 2002, the Ben Hogan Award began
honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer
at Colonial Country Club.
Winners of the Ben Hogan Award have been:
D.J. Trahan (Clemson, 2002), Ricky Barnes (Arizona,
2003), Hunter Mahan (Oklahoma State, 2003), Bill
Haas (Wake Forest, 2004), Ryan Moore (UNLV,
2005), Matt Every (Florida, 2006), Chris Kirk
(Georgia, 2007), Rickie Fowler (Oklahoma State,
2008), Kyle Stanley (Clemson, 2009), Nick Taylor
(Washington, 2010), Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State,
2011), Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, 2012), Chris Williams
(Washington, 2013), Patrick Rodgers (Stanford,
2014) and Jon Rahm (Arizona State, 2015 and
2016).
Some of the notable semifinalists over the years
include: Jonas Blixt (Florida State), Bud Cauley
(Alabama), Kevin Chappell (UCLA), Bryson
Dechambeau (SMU), Harris English (Georgia), Brian
Harman (Georgia), Russell Henley (Georgia), Beau
Hossler (Texas), Dustin Johnson (Coastal Carolina),
Michael Kim (California), Scott Langley (Illinois),
Spencer Levin (New Mexico), Cheng-Tsung Pan
(Washington), Ollie Schneiderjans (Georgia Tech),
Webb Simpson (Wake Forest), Jordan Spieth
(Texas), Justin Thomas (Alabama), Michael
Thompson (Alabama), Camilo Villegas (Florida) and
Nick Watney (Fresno State).
Semifinalist Notes
• The Ben Hogan Award semifinalist group
includes four seniors, four juniors and two
sophomores.
• Four conferences are represented on the
semifinalist list, led by the Pac-12 with five players.
The other leagues include the SEC (2), Big Ten (2)
and ACC (1).
• The Pac-12 has had the most semifinalists of
any league in five of the last six years (2012, 2013,
2014, 2015, 2017).
• With the inclusion of Nick Hardy and Dylan
Meyer, Illinois has multiple honorees. The Illini are
the first team with two semifinalists since 2014,
when both Stanford (Patrick Rodgers and Cameron
Wilson) and Alabama (Robby Shelton and Bobby
Wyatt) had two apiece.
• This is the eighth straight year that Stanford
has a semifinalist, which is the longest active streak
by any school. Arizona State (3), Illinois (2) and
Oregon (2) also have active streaks.
• Three universities with 2017 semifinalists are
home to previous Ben Hogan Award winners. The
schools include: Arizona State (Jon Rahm), Stanford
(Patrick Rodgers) and Wake Forest (Bill Haas).
• Sam Burns is the first semifinalist in LSU
history.
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Editors Note: This article was written by
the the Ben Hogan Award