The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hossler named 2016 Ben Hogan Award finalist
05.03.2016 | Men's Golf
Junior Beau Hossler is one of three golfers from around the nation to be named a finalist.
AUSTIN, Texas – Junior Beau Hossler was named a Ben Hogan Award finalist, the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) announced on Tuesday.
Hossler joins Stanford's Maverick McNealy and Arizona State's Jon Rahm as the three finalists that are currently ranked among the top six in all four major ranking systems—the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking, Golfweek/Sagarin Ranking and Golfstat Individual Ranking.
Hossler is ranked first by both Golfweek/Sagarin and Golfstat and is third in the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking. He leads the nation with five collegiate victories in 2015-16, which includes four spring tournament wins, and owns a 69.73 scoring average.
For the year, the junior has top-10 finishes in nine of 10 tournaments for the Longhorns, including a runner-up showing at the Big 12 Championships.
Following a 10th-place finish at the 2015 NCAA Championships, Hossler was a member of the United States' 2015 Walker Cup team and also went 3-0-1 for victorious Team USA in last summer's Palmer Cup. He was one of 16 amateurs to qualify for the 115th U.S. Open, made the cut and placed 58th.
In addition, Hossler reached the match play round of 64 at the 2015 U.S. Amateur, tied for second at the Pacific Coast Amateur and tied for sixth at the Pan Am Games. In January, he won the 2016 Jones Cup Invitational by six shots.
The 2016 Ben Hogan Award recipient will receive an exemption into the PGA Tour's 2017 Dean & DeLuca Invitational, as well as earn a $30,000 grant for its men's golf scholarship program. The other two finalists' schools each will receive grants of $15,000.
The Ben Hogan Award is presented annually to the top men's NCAA Division I, II or II, 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 selection committee is made up of two dozen leaders and experts in amateur, college and professional golf. In order to determine the finalists, each committee member cast a ballot that ranked the group of 10 semifinalists from 1-10.
The award was first presented in 1990 through the Friends of Golf and Bel-Air Country Club and included academic achievement in its original list of standards. Its criteria was revised for the 2001-02 collegiate season to its current standard of honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer and the award was moved to Colonial Country Club.
Since that time, the winners include: 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 Rahm (Arizona State, 2015).
Since the committee began inviting all three finalists to Colonial Country Club in 2005, notable finalists include PGA TOUR winners Jordan Spieth (2012), Russell Henley (2010) and Michael Thompson (2008).
Jeff Fahrenbruch is the only Longhorn to win the Ben Hogan Award since its inception in 1990, doing so in 1997.
The last Texas golfer to be named a finalist for the award was Spieth in 2012.
The winner of the 2016 Ben Hogan Award will be announced at a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 23, prior to the start of the PGA Tour's Dean & DeLuca Invitational, where the winner will be crowned.
Players Mentioned
