Texas Tech senior Ludvig Aberg became just the second golfer ever to win the Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank multiple times, joining current World No. 1 and former Arizona State star Jon Rahm.
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 the week of the PGA Tour's Charles Schwab challenge at a black-tie dinner honoring the three finalists at Colonial Country Club.
Aberg, who hails from Eslov, Sweden, ranks among the top two in every major ranking system, including No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com Ranking and the PGA TOUR University Ranking. Additionally, he is listed second in both the Golfstat individual college ranking and the Golfweek/Sagarin college ranking.
The senior has won his last two events, the NCAA Norman Regional and the Big 12 Conference Championships, making him the only player in Division I golf to win both a conference and regional title this year. He claimed the Big 12 individual title by eight shots with a tournament-record 15-under par score of 265. He also grabbed college wins this season at the Valspar Collegiate and The Prestige. On the year, he finished among the top 10 in all nine tournaments, while carrying a 68.46 stroke average.
Aberg made the cut at a pair of PGA TOUR events this spring, sharing 24th place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and tying for 61st at the Valspar Championship. A 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup participant for Team Europe, last summer he also reached the match play quarterfinals at the Amateur Championship, advanced to the match play round of 64 at the U.S. Amateur, tied for seventh individually at the World Amateur Team Championship and was 18th at the European Amateur.
This marks the fourth time a golfer from the Big 12 Conference has won in the past six years with Aberg (2022), Oklahoma State’s Viktor Hovland (2019) and Texas’ Doug Ghim (2018). Europeans have now claimed five of the past nine awards courtesy of Rahm (2015, 2016), Hovland (2019) and Aberg (2022, 2023). Prior to Rahm, no European-born player had ever won the Ben Hogan Award.
During the ceremony, Aberg was extended the first invitation into the PGA TOUR’s 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge from tournament chairman Jim Whitten.
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 12 players in the Official World Golf Ranking—No. 1 Rahm (2015, 2016), No. 4 Patrick Cantlay (2012) and No. 12 Viktor Hovland (2019)—are past recipients of the honor.
The group of three Ben Hogan Award Finalists honored Monday night by the Hogan Trophy Award Foundation, Friends of Golf (FOG) and Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) included Aberg, Vanderbilt sophomore Gordon Sargent and Stanford junior Michael Thorbjornsen.
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.
About the Ben Hogan Award
The Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank began honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer at Colonial Country Club in 2002. Prior to 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 $900,000 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 $15,000 donation to assist the University of the Southwest, which experienced a profound tragedy within its men’s and women’s golf programs in 2022. That brings the total to $40,000 from the Foundation over the past two years. In addition, the Fort Worth Colonial Charities presented USW head coach RJ Lester with a $10,000 check for the program and guest speaker Ryan Palmer’s Foundation pledged another $10,000.
Also honored at Colonial was longtime TCU head men’s golf coach Bill Montigel, who received the Eddie Merrins Award. Recipients of the Eddie Merrins Award are to be highly regarded for their service, dedication and contributions to college and amateur golf while upholding the highest standards, values and ethics of the game.
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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