Ludvig Aberg (GCAA photo)
Texas Tech junior
Ludvig Aberg has been named the 2022 recipient of the Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank. The annual award – which honors the top men’s college golfer based on collegiate, amateur, and professional events over the previous 12 months – was announced tonight at a black-tie dinner honoring the three Finalists at Colonial Country Club.
Aberg, who hails from Eslov, Sweden, becomes the first-ever winner from Texas Tech and the third recipient from the Big 12 Conference in the past five years, joining Oklahoma State’s Viktor Hovland in 2019 and Texas’ Doug Ghim in 2018. He is the third European ever honored, following Spain’s Jon Rahm and Norway’s Hovland. Upon claiming the award, Aberg was extended the first invitation into the PGA TOUR’s 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge from tournament chairman Jim Whitten.
The junior ranks among the top three in all of the major ranking systems, including No. 1 according to the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Amateur Ranking, and No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), No. 2 in the Golfstat individual rankings, and No. 3 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.
Related: The 2021 AGC Men's Player of the Year: Ludvig Aberg
The runner-up at the 2021 European Amateur, Aberg, was tied for 30th at the European Tour’s Scandinavian Mixed and shared 51st at the PGA TOUR’s 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. He also has been selected to participate on the International Team at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup.
Aberg has recorded nine straight top-15 finishes in college play, including impressive wins at the Big 12 Championships and The Prestige. Last week, he also tied for sixth place at the New Haven NCAA Regional. The Red Raider has finished no worse than sixth in his last seven tournaments. He owns a 70.03 scoring average over 11 collegiate events this season.
The Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank annually awards the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer based on all collegiate, amateur and professional events over the previous 12 months. Three of the top six players in the Official World Golf Ranking—No. 2 Rahm (2015, 2016), No. 5 Patrick Cantlay (2012) and No. 6 Hovland (2019)—are past recipients of the honor, while No. 3 Collin Morikawa (2018, 2019) was a two-time Ben Hogan Award Finalist. Morikawa attended as tonight’s special guest speaker.
The group of three Finalists was honored Monday night by the Hogan Trophy Award Foundation, Friends of Golf (FOG) and Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) including Aberg, Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett, and Oklahoma State’s Eugenio Chacarra. Aberg was voted the winner by an esteemed selection committee made up of nearly three dozen leaders and experts in college, amateur, and professional golf. In addition, all past award winners were eligible to vote in the final round, casting a ballot to rank the three Finalists.
The Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank began honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer at Colonial Country Club in 2002. Before its move to Fort Worth, the original Ben Hogan Trophy, which utilized a different set of criteria for its winner, was issued by FOG at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles beginning in 1990.
Since 2002, the Hogan Trophy Award Foundation has awarded more than $875,000 in scholarships to more than 30 universities and charitable organizations. In addition to making donations to scholarship programs at the Finalists’ universities, the Foundation is making a $10,000 donation to honor and assist the University of the Southwest, which experienced a profound tragedy within its men’s and women’s golf programs this spring.
-- GCAA report by Drew Harris
ABOUT THE
Ben Hogan Award
The Ben Hogan Award is given annually to honor the
best college golf player in the United States. Since
2005, the award winner is named at a ceremony prior
to the PGA Tour event at Colonial Country Club in Fort
Worth, Texas, and is invited to the following year's
tournament.
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