10 semifinalists named for 2015 The Ben Hogan Award
FORT WORTH, Texas – Colonial Country Club, Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) have announced that five seniors, two juniors and three sophomores comprise the 10 semifinalists for The Ben Hogan Award, the most prestigious award in men’s college golf.
In alphabetical order, the semifinalists are: Gavin Green (New Mexico), Beau Hossler (Texas), Kyle Jones (Baylor), Lee McCoy (Georgia), Maverick McNealy (Stanford), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington), Jon Rahm (Arizona State), Ollie Schniederjans (Georgia Tech), Robby Shelton (Alabama) and Hunter Stewart (Vanderbilt).
This is the first time since 2005 that 10 different schools are represented on the semifinalist list. Pan, Schniederjans and Shelton are semifinalists for the second straight year, and Pan is the first golfer ever to be a four-time semifinalist.
The Ben Hogan Award is presented 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 12-month period dating from the previous award’s banquet. The Ben Hogan Award Selection Committee is made up of 25 leaders and experts in amateur, college and professional golf.
On Wednesday, May 6, the list of 10 semifinalists will be pared down to three finalists. The three finalists will attend a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday, May 18, where the winner will be crowned.
The award, which was first issued in 1990 and included academic achievement in its original list of standards, revised its criteria for the 2001-02 collegiate season to its current standard of honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer prior to the start of the PGA TOUR’s Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
Since that time, the winners 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) and Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, 2014).
Notable semifinalists over the years include: Jonas Blixt (Florida State), Bud Cauley (Alabama), Kevin Chappell (UCLA), Harris English (Georgia), Ches¬son Hadley (Georgia Tech), Brian Harman (Georgia), Russell Henley (Georgia), Dustin Johnson (Coastal Carolina), Anthony Kim (Oklahoma), Scott Langley (Illinois), Spencer Levin (New Mexico), Webb Simpson (Wake Forest), Jordan Spieth (Texas), Michael Thompson (Alabama), Camilo Villegas (Florida) and Nick Watney (Fresno State).
For more information on The Ben Hogan Award, visit TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter.
Notes About the Semifinalists
• The Ben Hogan Award semifinalist group includes five seniors, two juniors and one sophomore.
• This is the first time since 2005 that no teammates are among the semifinalists, as 10 different schools are represented.
• The Pac-12 Conference and Southeastern Conference tied for the most semifinalists with three apiece. It is the fourth straight year that the
Pac-12 has had the most semifinalists.
• Three of the 10 semifinalists are foreign-born: Gavin Green (Malaysia), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Taiwan) and Jon Rahm (Spain).
• Three of the 10 nominees (Cheng-Tsung Pan, Ollie Schniederjans and Robby Shelton) are semifinalists for the second straight year.
• Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan is the first player ever named as a semifinalist four years.
• Alabama has had at least one semifinalist in eight consecutive years (Michael Thompson-2008; Bud Cauley-2009, 2010, 2011; Justin Thom¬as-2012, 2013; Bobby Wyatt-2013, 2014; Robby Shelton-2014, 2015), which is the longest active streak in the country.
• Other schools with active semifinalist streaks are Stanford (6), Washington (4), Georgia (2) and Georgia Tech (2).
• Three schools with 2015 semifinalists (Georgia-Chris Kirk, Washington-Chris Williams and Stanford-Patrick Rodgers) have previously had Ben Hogan Award winners.
• Hunter Stewart is the first semifinalist in Vanderbilt history.
• In the amateur rankings, the list features the top four players in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and six are among the WAGR’s top 12. It also includes six of the top seven players in the Scratch Players World Amateur listing.
• In the college rankings, the list includes nine of the top 10 players in the Golfstat rankings as well as nine of the top 10 in the Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings.
Semifinalists
Name – School, Year, Hometown
Gavin Green – New Mexico, Sr., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Beau Hossler – Texas, So., Mission Viejo, Calif.
Kyle Jones – Baylor, Sr., Snowflake, Ariz.
Lee McCoy – Georgia, Jr., Clarkesville, Ga.
Maverick McNealy – Stanford, So., Portola Valley, Calif.
Cheng-Tsung Pan – Washington, Sr., Miaoli County, Taiwan Jon Rahm – Arizona State, Jr., Barrika, Spain Ollie Schniederjans – Georgia Tech, Sr., Powder Springs, Ga.
Robby Shelton – Alabama, So., Wilmer, Ala.
Hunter Stewart – Vanderbilt, Sr., Lexington, Ky.