Feb. 8, 2012
FORT WORTH, Texas - Husky junior Chris Williams and freshman Cheng-Tsung Pan are among 28 college golfers that were named to the 2012 Ben Hogan Award watch list, the Baird Private Wealth Management, in association with Colonial Country Club, The Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America announced on Wednesday. The most prestigious award in men's college golf, 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 past 12-month period. The Ben Hogan Award Selection Committee represents leaders in professional, amateur and collegiate golf. Matt Thurmond's program has a past history of winning the award; Nick Taylor took home college golf's top honor in 2010. Williams, a junior from Moscow, Idaho, is currently the No. 6 ranked player in the R&A World Amateur Rankings and No. 11 on Golfweek.com's college individual list. Williams has four collegiate wins under his belt, was a second-team PING All-American in 2011 and a first team All-Pac-10 Selection. He was the 2010 Phil Mickeson Award winner, given to the nation's top college freshman golfer, and was the 2010 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. Williams played in the 2011 U.S. Open, was a member of the Walker Cup and Palmer Cup teams and won two-thirds of the Western Amateur Swing this past summer. Pan is a freshman from Taiwan that came to Washington as perhaps the top rated recruit in the programs history. He has not disappointed since stepping foot on campus, winning the second event that he competed in - the Prestige at PGA West. Pan finished top-10 in three events this past fall and is poised for bigger things as the Huskies' season progresses. The 2012 The Ben Hogan Award Watch List includes: Blayne Barber (Auburn, Jr.), Zac Blair (BYU, Jr.), Julien Brun (TCU, Fr.), Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, So.), Sean Dale (North Florida, Jr.), Derek Ernst (UNLV, Sr.), Dylan Frittelli (Texas, Sr.), Luke Guthrie (Illinois, Sr.), Stephan Jaeger (Chattanooga, Sr.), Brooks Koepka (Florida State, Sr.), Jace Long (Missouri, Jr.), Bryden Macpherson (Georgia, Jr.), Daniel Miernicki (Oregon, Sr.), Corbin Mills (Clemson, Jr.), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington, Fr.), Thomas Pieters (Illinois, So.), Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, Fr.), Kyle Souza (Chico State, Sr.), Jordan Spieth (Texas, Fr.), Justin Thomas (Alabama, Fr.), Ethan Tracy (Arkansas, Sr.), Harold Varner (East Carolina, Sr.), T.J. Vogel (Florida, Jr.), James White (Georgia Tech, Sr.), Cory Whitsett (Alabama, So.), Chris Williams (Washington, Jr.), Eugene Wong (Oregon, Sr.) and Andrew Yun (Stanford, Jr.). A list of 10 semifinalists will be unveiled on Wednesday, April 11, and then will be pared down to three finalists on Thursday, May 10. The winner will be crowned at a banquet at Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 21, prior to the start of the PGA TOUR's Crowne Plaza Invitational. The award, which was first issued in 1990 and also 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. 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) and Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State, 2011). Each of the first nine listed above is currently playing full time on the PGA TOUR. Over the last 10 PGA TOUR tournaments, former Hogan Award winners have recorded three victories and two runner-up finishes. To find the latest information on The Ben Hogan Award, its candidates and its previous winners, visit www.Facebook.com/BenHoganAward and @BenHoganAward on Twitter. For an exclusive video of the Watch List announcement, visit http://golfweek.com/videos/2012/feb/08/1208/. About the Candidates |
