April 15, 2015
Vanderbilt senior Hunter Stewart has been named as a Ben Hogan Award semifinalist, it was announced Wednesday by the Colonial Country Club, Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) in Fort Worth, Texas. The award is the most prestigious award in men’s college golf.
Stewart, from Lexington, Ky., has averaged 69.52 strokes per round this season, the lowest in the SEC and the lowest ever by a Vanderbilt golfer in a single season. He has won three individual tournaments in 2014-15 – the Carmel Cup, the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational, and the Mason Rudolph Championship, and has nine top 10 finishes. He posted a career-low 65 in the first round of the Tavistock Collegiate, and then shot a 66 in the final round, and has 12 rounds in the 60’s this season. For his career, he has four career individual titles, which is the most in the history of the Commodore program.
Stewart is the first Hogan Award semifinalist in the program’s history.
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.
Stewart joins other semifinalists Gavin Green (New Mexico), Beau Hossler (Texas), Kyle Jones (Baylor), Lee McCoy (Georgia), Maverick McNealy (Stanford), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington), Jon Rahm (Arizona State), Ollie Schniederjans (Georgia Tech), and Robby Shelton (Alabama).
On Wednesday, May 6, the list of 10 semifinalists will be pared down to three finalists. The three finalists will attend a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday, May 18, where the winner will be crowned.
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 prior to the start of the PGA TOUR’s Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
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), Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State, 2011), Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, 2012), Chris Williams (Washington, 2013) and Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, 2014).
Notable semifinalists over the years include: Jonas Blixt (Florida State), Bud Cauley (Alabama), Kevin Chappell (UCLA), Harris English (Georgia), Chesson Hadley (Georgia Tech), Brian Harman (Georgia), Russell Henley (Georgia), Dustin Johnson (Coastal Carolina), Anthony Kim (Oklahoma), Scott Langley (Illinois), Spencer Levin (New Mexico), Webb Simpson (Wake Forest), Jordan Spieth (Texas), Michael Thompson (Alabama), Camilo Villegas (Florida) and Nick Watney (Fresno State).