Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent and Cole Sherwood have each been named to the watch list for the 2023 Ben Hogan Award. The Vandy duo were announced as two of 37 golfers on the list unveiled Friday.
A sophomore and the defending NCAA individual champion, Sargent was the 2022 Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award winner, a first team All-American, the SEC Freshman of the Year and a Haskins Award finalist in 2022. Sargent won the individual stroke play championship at the East Lake Cup in October and was recently invited to compete in the 2023 Masters Tournament.
Sherwood, the Michael Carter “Junior” Memorial Award at the Palmer Cup and the Tom Cousins Award recipient, finished second at the Frederica Cup in September. He was a Haskins Award and Jack Nicklaus Award finalist as a sophomore after winning two individual tournament titles, setting an 18-hole Vanderbilt record (61) and setting a 54-hole Vanderbilt record (196).
The Ben Hogan Award annually awards the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA golfer based on all collegiate, amateur and professional events over the previous 12 months. Three of the top 12 players in the Official World Golf Ranking—No. 3 Jon Rahm (2015, 2016), No. 5 Patrick Cantlay (2012) and No. 11 Viktor Hovland (2019)—are past recipients of the honor, while No. 8 Collin Morikawa (2018, 2019) was a two-time finalist.
The 2023 Ben Hogan Award watch list, as determined by the award’s subcommittee, includes: Sargent, Sherwood, Ludvig Aberg (Texas Tech), Leon Acikalin (Arizona Christian), Cole Anderson (Florida State), Sam Bennett (Texas A&M), Fred Biondi (Florida), Ryan Burnett (North Carolina), Dominic Clemons (Hutchinson Community College), Charles DeLong (Grand Valley State), Adrien Dumont de Chassart (Illinois), Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira (Arkansas), David Ford (North Carolina), Nick Gabrelcik (North Florida), Austin Greaser (North Carolina), Derek Hitchner (Pepperdine), Ben James (Virginia), Connor Jones (Colorado State), Tommy Kuhl (Illinois), Christo Lamprecht (Georgia Tech), Bryce Lewis (Tennessee), Yuxin Lin (Florida), Christiaan Maas (Texas), Dylan Menante (North Carolina), Maxwell Moldovan (Ohio State), William Mouw (Pepperdine), Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Oklahoma State), Greg Odom (Howard), Alex Price (Newport), Calum Scott (Texas Tech), Herman Sekne (Purdue), Garrison Smith (New Mexico State), Ross Steelman (Georgia Tech), Preston Summerhays (Arizona State), Caleb Surratt (Tennessee), Michael Thorbjornsen (Stanford) and Travis Vick (Texas).
The list includes 20 seniors, seven juniors, seven sophomores and three freshmen. Two award finalists from 2022 return with Aberg, the reigning Ben Hogan Award winner, and Bennett. In addition, Thorbjornsen was a semifinalist in 2022
Nine schools have multiple golfers on the watch list, led by North Carolina with four. Programs with two players on the watch list are Vanderbilt, Florida, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Pepperdine, Tennessee, Texas and Texas Tech.
This year’s list of 10 semifinalists, which could include individuals not on the watch list, will be unveiled April 14. That group will be pared down to three finalists May 4. The finalists will attend a black-tie dinner May 22 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, where the winner will be crowned.
A selection committee votes during each stage of the process. The selection committee is comprised of more than 30 leaders in collegiate, amateur and professional golf.
Original source can be found here
