The Hogan Trophy Award Foundation, Friends of Golf (FOG) and Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) are pleased to present the three Finalists for the 2022 Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank. The three Finalists, listed in alphabetical order, are: Texas Tech’s Ludvig Aberg, Sam Bennett of Texas A&M and Oklahoma State’s Eugenio Chacarra.
The Finalists will attend a black-tie dinner Monday, May 23, at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, where the winner will be crowned. The winner will receive an exemption into the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge, played annually at Colonial.
Aberg and Bennett are Texas Tech and Texas A&M’s first-ever Finalists. With the addition of Chacarra, Oklahoma State now has its 10th Finalist attending and is seeking its fifth award winner in the past 20 years.
Aberg, a junior from Eslov, Sweden, ranks among the top five in all four major ranking systems, including No. 1 according to the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking and No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). The runner up at the 2021 European Amateur, Aberg also placed tied for 30th at the European Tour’s Scandinavian Mixed and shared 51st at the PGA TOUR’s 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. He will be a member of the 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup International team.
In college play, Aberg has recorded eight straight top-15 finishes, including wins at the Big 12 Championships and The Prestige. The Red Raider has finished no worse than sixth in his last six tournaments, and owns a 70.20 scoring average over 10 events this season.
Bennett, a senior from Madisonville, Texas, who has one more year of eligibility remaining, is the top-ranked player in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings. He also is listed third by Golfstat and fifth according to WAGR. The Ben Hogan Award’s November Golfer of the Month was the winner of the 2021 Spirit International Golf Championship. In addition, Bennett was a member of the victorious 2021 United States Palmer Cup team, and has been named to the 2022 U.S. squad.
For the Aggies, Bennett won the Louisiana Classics and registered a runner-up placement at the John Burns Intercollegiate. In all, he has finished among the top five on six occasions, five times landing inside the top three. He carries a 69.42 stroke average over eight tournaments.
Chacarra, a senior from Madrid, Spain, who will return for his final season next year, ranks among the top seven in all four rankings systems, including second in the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking and fourth in WAGR. He was a member of the International side at the 2021 Palmer Cup, where he posted a 4-0 mark, and has been selected to represent the team again in 2022. Chacarra also claimed medalist honors at the 2021 European Amateur Team Championship.
For Oklahoma State, he has logged a 69.16 scoring average over 34 rounds with eight top-10 showings. Chacarra has two tournament victories this spring, winning the Amer Ari Invitational and the National Invitational Tournament. He was the Ben Hogan Award’s March Golfer of the Month.
The Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank annually awards the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer based on all collegiate, amateur and professional events over the previous 12 months. Three of the top six players in the Official World Golf Ranking—No. 2 Jon Rahm (2015, 2016), No. 4 Viktor Hovland (2019) and No. 6 Patrick Cantlay (2012)—are past recipients of the honor, while No. 3 Collin Morikawa (2018, 2019) was a two-time Ben Hogan Award Finalist.
The award’s selection committee, which votes during each stage of the process, is made up of 34 leaders and experts in professional, amateur and collegiate golf both domestically and internationally. Aberg, Bennett and Chacarra were selected among a group of semifinalists that also included Pierceson Coody of Texas, Oklahoma’s Chris Gotterup, Cole Hammer of Texas, Washington’s RJ Manke, Logan McAllister of Oklahoma, Georgia’s Trent Phillips and Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford.
The Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank began honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer at Colonial Country Club in 2002. Prior to its move to Fort Worth, the original Ben Hogan Trophy, which utilized a different set of criteria for its winner, was issued at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles beginning in 1990.
Hogan Award winners at Colonial have combined to accumulate 69 worldwide victories, including 51 PGA TOUR wins, and have amassed more than $330 million in prize money across the globe with more than $300 million of that total achieved on the PGA TOUR. Additionally, the group has appeared in 12 Ryder Cups, a dozen Presidents Cups and claimed two FedExCup championships.
In addition to Rahm, Cantlay and Hovland, past recipients include: Ricky Barnes (2003), Matt Every (2006), Rickie Fowler (2008), Doug Ghim (2018), Bill Haas (2004), Chris Kirk (2007), Hunter Mahan (2003), Maverick McNealy (2017), Ryan Moore (2005), John Pak (2021), Patrick Rodgers (2014), Kyle Stanley (2009), Nick Taylor (2010), Sahith Theegala (2020), D.J. Trahan (2002), Peter Uihlein (2011) and Chris Williams (2013).
Since 2002, the Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank has distributed over $875,000 in scholarships to more than 30 universities and charitable organizations. For more information, visit TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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