Feb. 8, 2017
Senior Matthias Schwab and sophomore Patrick Martin have been named to the 2017 Ben Hogan Award Watch List, an award given 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 past 12-month period.
The honor is the second for Schwab, who was named to the Watch List in 2016. The appearance for Martin is his first. The Commodores are one of seven schools with multiple honorees.
Schwab (2016, 2017) and Martin (2017) also mark the seventh time a Vanderbilt player has been named to the Watch List, joining Hunter Stewart (2015), Luke List (2005, 2006), and Brandt Snedeker (2003).
The list of 10 semifinalists, which could include individuals not on the watch list, will be unveiled on Wednesday, April 12. On Wednesday, May 3, that group will be pared down to three finalists. The finalists will attend a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday, May 22, prior to the start of the PGA TOUR’s Dean & DeLuca Invitational, where the winner will be crowned.
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), Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State, 2011), Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, 2012), Chris Williams (Washington, 2013), Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, 2014) and Jon Rahm (Arizona State, 2015, 2016).