Rodgers honored with The 2014 Ben Hogan Award
Stanford junior is first winner in school history
FORT WORTH, Texas (May 18, 2014) – Colonial Country Club, the Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) have announced that the recipient of The 2014 Ben Hogan Award is Stanford junior Patrick Rodgers. The first honoree in school history, Rodgers is the third straight winner from the Pac-12 Conference, following UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay (2012) and Washington’s Chris Williams (2013).
Rodgers, a native of Avon, Ind., is the world’s top-ranked amateur golfer according to both the World Amateur Golf Ranking as well as the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking. A Hogan Award finalist as a freshman in 2012, he is just the fourth golfer invited to the banquet at Colonial on multiple occasions. The other three, Georgia’s Chris Kirk, Oklahoma State’s Rickie Fowler and Cantlay each were winners as well.
Heading into the NCAA Championships, Rodgers has six collegiate victories in 2013-14 to tie Tiger Woods’ all-time Stanford record for career wins (11). In his last six events, Rodgers has five wins and a runner-up finish. His season victories have come at the Erin Hills Invitational, The Goodwin, Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters, Prestige at PGA West, Pac-12 Championships and NCAA Eugene Regional. Rodgers, the Pac-12 Player of the Year, is currently ranked first in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and third according to Golfstat. In 11 tournaments this year, he boasts nine top-10 finishes and a stroke average of 69.41.
On the amateur circuit, he was a member of the winning United States Walker Cup and Palmer Cup teams in 2013 and finished with a 5-1-2 record. Last summer, he was the medalist at the Western Amateur and reached the round of 16 in match play at both the Western Amateur and the United States Amateur. In addition, he tied for 15th place at the PGA TOUR’s John Deere Classic last July.
By virtue of his win, Rodgers was presented with an exemption into the PGA TOUR’s 2015 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial by tournament chairman Bobby Patton. In addition, his university earned a $25,000 grant for its men’s golf scholarship program. The other finalists, Stanford teammate Cameron Wilson and Georgia Tech’s Ollie Schniederjans, each earned their respective schools $12,500 grants. All three finalists were present for the announcement, which was made at a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club.
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 24 leaders and experts in amateur, college and professional golf.
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 the award presentation was moved to Colonial Country Club. Since that time, the winners have included: 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) and Chris Williams (Washington, 2013).
For information on The Ben Hogan Award, visit www.TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter.
–TheBenHoganAward.org–
