STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford sophomore Maverick McNealy was named one of three finalists for The Ben Hogan Award, as announced Wednesday by the Colonial Country Club, Friends of Golf and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA).
Washington senior Cheng-Tsung Pan and Arizona State junior Jon Rahm are also finalists. It is the first time in the award’s history that all three finalists represent one conference.
The three Pac-12 Conference student-athletes will attend a banquet at Colonial Country Club on May 18, prior to the start of the PGA Tour’s Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, where the winner will be crowned. The ceremony will be streamed live on TheBenHoganAward.org beginning at 6 p.m. (PT).
All three are first-time finalists. For the first time, all three were all born on different continents -- McNealy (North America), Pan (Asia) and Rahm (Europe).
McNealy is the nation’s top-ranked college player in both the Golfstat Rankings and the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings. He leads NCAA Division I with five collegiate victories this year, capped by a dominant 10-stroke win at the Pac-12 Championships last week. His 18-under 262 established a league tournament scoring record.
The Pac-12 Player of the Year previously claimed medalist honors at the Southwestern Intercollegiate, Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, The Prestige at PGA West and The Goodwin. A three-time Pac-12 Golfer of the Month, he has been selected to compete this summer on the United States Palmer Cup team.
The native of Portola Valley, California, is listed third in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and 34th in the Scratch Players World Rankings. Last summer, he qualified to compete at both the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur. Among his top finishes, he tied for ninth at the 2014 Players Amateur.
McNealy is the third different Stanford finalist for the award dating back to last year, joining reigning winner Patrick Rodgers and Cameron Wilson.
The 2015 Ben Hogan Award recipient will receive an exemption into the PGA Tour’s 2016 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, as well as earn a $25,000 grant for its men’s golf scholarship program. The other two finalists’ schools each will receive grants of $12,500.
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. Each committee member cast a ballot that ranked the group of 10 semifinalists from 1-10.
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 and moved the award to Colonial Country Club.
The winners since then are: 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).