Nick Gabrelcik (North Florida Athletics Photo)
Five finalists have been named for the 2024 NCAA Divison I Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Workday. They are
Luke Clanton of Florida State,
Nick Gabrelcik of North Florida,
Jackson Koivun of Auburn,
Christo Lamprecht of Georgia Tech, and
Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford.
The winner will be announced by Nicklaus on Tuesday, June 4 during his annual Memorial press conference with awards presented to each of the recipients by Nicklaus and Workday.
All five golfers are ranked in the top 20 of the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings.
After finishing inside the top 10 only twice in his five fall appearances, Clanton stormed to the top of the Scoreboard powered by Clippd National Rankings by recording a top-eight finish in all but one spring tournament for the Seminoles.
The sophomore from Hialeah, Fla., who is on pace to break the school record for single-season scoring average, became the first in program history to win three straight tournaments after claiming the Seminole Intercollegiate, Valspar Collegiate Invitational, and Lewis Chitengwa Memorial titles.
Clanton earned First-Team All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) honors for Co-Head Coach of the Year Trey Jones and was selected to compete for Team USA in the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup, held July 5-7 at Lahinch Golf Club in Lahinch, Ireland.
A three-time PING All-American and Ben Hogan Award semifinalist, Gabrelcik finished inside the top 10 nine times, including wins at the Williams Cup and Gator Invitational, and led the Ospreys to their eighth NCAA Championship appearance in program history.
With 20 of his 33 rounds ending in the 60s, including a 62 in the season-opening Visit Knoxville Collegiate, the four-time Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) Golfer of the Year from Trinity, Fla., holds almost every statistical school record and is ranked fifth in the PGA TOUR University Ranking and eighth in Scoreboard powered by Clippd’s National Ranking.
Koivun owns top-10 finishes in 11 of his 12 tournaments and the lowest adjusted scoring average in NCAA Division I (67.4). The Chapel Hill, N.C., native was a co-medalist at the Pinehurst Intercollegiate and won the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championship by six strokes with 16 birdies.
Leading the Tigers to their fifth SEC Championship in program history with a 3-0 record in Match Play, Koivun became the program’s first and conference’s third to earn SEC Freshman and Player of the Year in the same season.
Setting the school record for most subpar rounds in a single season during the Baton Rouge Regional, he then joined Rickie Fowler (2008) as the only freshman to receive the Ben Hogan Award presented by PNC Bank on May 20. Ranked third in the Scoreboard powered by Clippd National Rankings, he was selected to compete for Team USA in the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup.
With a low amateur medal at The Open, an appearance in The Masters, The Amateur Championship trophy, and the Byron Nelson Award among a laundry list of accolades over the last calendar year, Lamprecht has been a mainstay among the sport’s elite.
Ranked second in the PGA TOUR University Ranking and fifth in Scoreboard powered by Clippd’s National Ranking, the senior from George, South Africa, has finished inside the top-21 in all 11 tournaments this season with six top-10s and a win at the Fighting Illini Invitational. Lamprecht was September 2023’s NCAA Division I SwingU Player of the Month, the 2023 NCAA Division I SwingU College Player of the Fall, and a Ben Hogan Award finalist.
Thorbjornsen was sidelined during Stanford’s first five tournaments of the season with a stress fracture in his back but picked up right where he left off. The two-time PING All-American and two-time Ben Hogan Award semifinalist recorded top-10 finishes in each of his last five tournaments, including his one-stroke victory at the Cabo Collegiate, en route to earning his third consecutive First-Team All-Pac-12 recognition.
Thorbjornsen, a senior from Wellesley, Mass., is ranked first in the PGA TOUR University Ranking and has been ranked either third or fourth, where he currently sits, in the Scoreboard powered by Clippd National Rankings since his win in Cabo.
All five finalists are competing at the 2024 NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., beginning this week.
Nicklaus, a Big Ten and NCAA Champion at Ohio State, helped inspire and create the Jack Nicklaus Award in 1988. The award is now presented to the National Player of the Year in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, as well as NAIA and NJCAA.