FORT WORTH, Texas (April 22, 2021) – The Hogan Trophy Award Foundation, Friends of Golf (FOG) and Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) have announced the 10 semifinalists for the 2021 Ben Hogan Award. The semifinalist group is comprised of three seniors, four juniors, two sophomores and one freshman.
The 10 contenders, in alphabetical order, are: Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech, Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett, Pierceson Coody of Texas, Wake Forest’s Alex Fitzpatrick, Nick Gabrelcik of North Florida, SMU’s Mac Meissner, John Pak of Florida State, Arizona State’s David Puig, Garett Reband of Oklahoma and Georgia’s Davis Thompson.
Coody, Pak, Reband and Thompson are all being recognized for the second straight year. Six leagues are represented on this year’s list, led by the Big 12 Conference with three selections.
The Ben Hogan Award is issued annually in June to the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer taking into account all collegiate, amateur and professional competitions during the past 12-month period. The award’s selection committee, which votes during each stage of the process, is made up of more than two dozen leaders and experts in professional, amateur and collegiate golf both domestically and internationally.
On Thursday, May 13, the group of semifinalists will be pared down to three finalists. The three finalists will travel to Fort Worth, Texas, to attend a luncheon at Colonial Country Club on Friday, June 4, where the winner will be crowned.
Since the award, which was founded at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles in 1990, moved to Colonial in 2002 and began recognizing the top amateur and collegiate golfer, Ben Hogan Award winners have combined to accumulate 44 PGA TOUR victories and more than $265 million in prize money on the tour.
Three winners are currently ranked in the top 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings—Jon Rahm (No. 3), Patrick Cantlay (No. 10) and Viktor Hovland (No. 15). Other recipients include: Ricky Barnes, Matt Every, Rickie Fowler, Doug Ghim, Bill Haas, Chris Kirk, Hunter Mahan, Maverick McNealy, Ryan Moore, Patrick Rodgers, Kyle Stanley, Nick Taylor, Sahith Theegala, D.J. Trahan, Peter Uihlein and Chris Williams.
In addition, finalists attending the ceremony over the past decade include some of the game’s biggest stars, including three players ranked among the world’s top 30—No. 4 Collin Morikawa, No. 26 Matthew Wolff and No. 29 Jordan Spieth.
Notable semifinalists over the years include Jonas Blixt (Florida State), Bud Cauley (Alabama), Kevin Chappell (UCLA), Bryson DeChambeau (SMU), Harris English (Georgia), Russell Henley (Georgia), Beau Hossler (Texas), Dustin Johnson (Coastal Carolina), Michael Kim (California), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington), Patrick Reed (Augusta State), Webb Simpson (Wake Forest), Justin Thomas (Alabama), Michael Thompson (Alabama), Camilo Villegas (Florida), Nick Watney (Fresno State) and Will Zalatoris (Wake Forest).
Since 2002, the Hogan Trophy Award Foundation has awarded over $825,000 in scholarships to more than 30 universities. For more information on the Ben Hogan Award, visit TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
2021 Ben Hogan Award Semifinalists
Ludvig Aberg, Texas Tech, So., Eslov, Sweden
Sam Bennett, Texas A&M, Jr., Madisonville, Texas
Pierceson Coody, Texas, Jr., Plano, Texas
Alex Fitzpatrick, Wake Forest, Jr., Sheffield, England
Nick Gabrelcik, North Florida, Fr., Trinity, Fla.
Mac Meissner, SMU, Jr., San Antonio, Texas
John Pak, Florida State, Sr., Scotch Plains, N.J.
David Puig, Arizona State, So., La Garriga, Spain
Garett Reband, Oklahoma, Sr., Fort Worth, Texas
Davis Thompson, Georgia, Sr., Auburn, Ala.
Semifinalist Notes
• The Ben Hogan Award semifinalist list is comprised of three seniors, four juniors, two sophomores and one freshman.
• Pierceson Coody, John Pak, Garett Reband and Davis Thompson are all being recognized as semifinalists for the second straight year.
• Six leagues are represented on this year’s list, led by the Big 12 Conference with three selections.
• All 10 semifinalists are inside the top 20 in at least three of the four major ranking systems (Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking, World Amateur Golf Ranking, Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings and Golfstat Head-to-Head Rankings), with eight listed among the top 20 in all four.
• Nick Gabrelcik is the 11th freshman to be named a semifinalist in the past 10 years. The others since 2012 include: Julien Brun (2012), Ricky Castillo (2020), Cole Hammer (2019), Sam Horsfield (2016), William Mouw (2020), Cheng-Tsung Pan (2012), Patrick Rodgers (2012), Jordan Spieth (2012), Brandon Stone (2013) and Justin Thomas (2012).
• This is the first time since 2016 that no school has multiple semifinalists.
• The longest active semifinalist streak belongs to Texas at four consecutive years dating back to 2018.
• Arizona State has a semifinalist for the third straight year and for the sixth time in the past seven years.
• Sam Bennett is the first Ben Hogan Award semifinalist from Texas A&M.
• Four universities with semifinalists are home to Ben Hogan Award winners since 2002, including Arizona State (Jon Rahm), Georgia (Chris Kirk), Texas (Doug Ghim) and Wake Forest (Bill Haas).
• Nearly half (four) of the semifinalists play college golf in Ben Hogan’s home state of Texas with Ludvig Aberg (Texas Tech), Sam Bennett (Texas A&M), Pierceson Coody (Texas) and Mac Meissner (SMU). In addition, Oklahoma’s Garett Reband is a product of Fort Worth, Texas.
