April 11, 2012
STANFORD, Calif. -- - Stanford freshman Patrick Rodgers has been named one of 10 semifinalists for the 2012 Ben Hogan Award, presented annually to the top player in collegiate golf.
Rodgers joins Blayne Barber (Auburn, Jr.), Julien Brun (TCU, Fr.), Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, So.), Dylan Frittelli (Texas, Sr.), Corbin Mills (Clemson, Jr.), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington, Fr.), Jordan Spieth (Texas, Fr.), Justin Thomas (Alabama, Fr.) and Chris Williams (Washington, Jr.) as semifinalists for this year's Ben Hogan Award.
A record five freshman are included among the semifinalists.
The list will be pared down to three finalists on Thursday, May 10. The three finalists will then attend a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 21, where the winner will be crowned prior to the start of the PGA TOUR's Crowne Plaza Invitational.
Rodgers has recorded six top-10 finishes in his eight events this season, including four top five showings. He has one win on the season, capturing the Fighting Illini Invitational in his first collegiate event in September.
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).
In addition to the above list of winners, the prestigious list of previous semifinalists includes: Brian Harman, Dustin Johnson, Anthony Kim, Spencer Levin, Graeme McDowell, Webb Simpson, Camilo Villegas and Nick Watney among others.