Chalk up another accolade for
Sahith Theegala.
The recent Pepperdine graduate has added yet another trophy to his young but plenty illustrious trophy case. With the Haskins already under his belt, Theegala becomes the first-ever recipient of the Ben Hogan Award from Pepperdine and the first non-Power 5 conference recipient since Ryan Moore (UNLV) in 2005, and the fourth player ever to win both the Hogan and the Haskins in the same season.
Related: Sahith Theegala of Pepperdine wins the Haskins Award
“For me to even be in the consideration of winning both of them [the Haskins and Hogan] is already an honor,” Theegala told AmateurGolf.com following his Haskins Award win. “To win the Hogan would be incredible. I don’t know how words could describe that.”
The Fred Haskins Award, founded in 1971, is given to the best collegiate men’s golfer each year. The Ben Hogan Award, founded in 1990, takes into account both collegiate and amateur golf over a 12 month period.
Theegala’s 2019-20 was one to remember. The Chino Hills, California native finished the year ranked No. 3 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Amateur Ranking, No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, No. 5 in the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking and was a PING First-Team All-American.
As the Hogan values amateur play as much as collegiate play, Theegala advanced to the 2019 match play portion of the U.S. Amateur and the Western Amateur. With a second-place finish at the 2019 Sahalee Players Amateur, a 12th place finish at the Sunnehanna, a win at the 2020 Master of the Amateurs in Australia, and a pair of collegiate wins to boot, Theegala was chosen over Vanderbilt senior John Augenstein and Florida freshman Ricky Castillo.
“To me, the scope of his competitive success represents what the Ben Hogan Award is all about,” AmateurGolf.com CEO Pete Wlodkowski said. Wlodkowski, who is a Hogan award voter, was very impressed with Theegala’s comeback from injury as well as his Master of the Amateurs victory in Australia.
As the 2020 Ben Hogan Award winner, Theegala is the first invitee to the 2021 Charles Schwab Cup, held at Colonial Country Club in Hogan’s hometown of Ft. Worth, Texas.
Related: After long road to recovery, Theegala goes out on top
ABOUT THE
Ben Hogan Award
The Ben Hogan Award is given annually to honor the
best college golf player in the United States. Since
2005, the award winner is named at a ceremony prior
to the PGA Tour event at Colonial Country Club in Fort
Worth, Texas, and is invited to the following year's
tournament.
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