Chris Williams
FORT WORTH, Texas (May 20, 2013) – The Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resortsbrand, in conjunction with Colonial Country Club, The Friends of Golf(FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America, has announced thatWashington senior Chris Williams is The Ben Hogan Award recipient for2013.
Williams is the world’s No.1-ranked amateur in both the World Amateur GolfRankings and the Scratch Players World Rankings. He was the 2012 recipientof the Mark H. McMormack Medal as the world’s top-ranked amateur, whichallowed him to clinch berths into the 2013 U.S. Open and the OpenChampionship. A product of Moscow, Idaho, he swept the 2012 WesternAmateur match play and stroke play titles. He also advanced to thequarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur last summer.
Additionally, he helped the United States claim the Eisenhower Trophy atthe World Amateur Team Championships in the fall. He also competed forTeam USA in the Palmer Cup and the Copa de las Americas. Collegiately,Williams has seven top-10 finishes in 11 events this year, including threerunner-up showings. The first-team All-Pac-12 selection boasts a 71.06season stroke average. Last weekend, he tied for 14th at the NCAA’sTallahassee Regional, helping his squad advance to the NCAA Championships.
Williams is the second Husky ever to win the award, joining Nick Taylor(2010). He is the second straight winner from the Pac-12 Conference(Patrick Cantlay, UCLA) and the third in the last four years in theleague.
By virtue of his win, Williams was presented with an exemption into thePGA TOUR’s 2014 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial by tournamentdirector Bobby Patton. In addition, his university earned a record $25,000grant for its men’s golf scholarship program. The other finalists, TCU’sJulien Brun and California’s Michael Kim, each earned their respectiveschools $12,500 grants. All three finalists were present for theannouncement, which was made at a black-tie banquet at Colonial CountryClub.
The Ben Hogan Award is presented annually to the top men’s NCAA DivisionI, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer taking into account allcollegiate and amateur competitions during the 12-month period dating fromthe previous award’s banquet. The Ben Hogan Award selection committee ismade up of 23 leaders and experts in amateur, college and professionalgolf.
This year marks the first year that the Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resortsbrand is the official sponsor of The Ben Hogan Award. The Crowne Plazabrand is in its second year of sponsorship with PGA TOUR professionalgolfer Rickie Fowler, the 2008 winner of The Ben Hogan Award. The CrownePlaza brand is the title sponsor of the Crowne Plaza Invitational atColonial through 2015. In addition, IHG®, the parent company of the CrownePlaza brand, is the Official Hotel and Resort Partner of the PGA TOUR,Champions Tour and Web.com Tour. The 2013 Crowne Plaza Invitational atColonial will be held May 20-26 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth,Texas. The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial is the longest runningPGA TOUR tournament still being held at the original site. Visitwww.crowneplaza.com/golf for more.
The award, which was first issued in 1990 and included academicachievement in its original list of standards, revised its criteria forthe 2001-02 collegiate season to its current standard of honoring theoutstanding amateur collegiate golfer. Since that time, the winners haveincluded: D.J. Trahan (Clemson, 2002), Ricky Barnes (Arizona, 2003),Hunter Mahan (Oklahoma State, 2003), Bill Haas (Wake Forest, 2004), RyanMoore (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) andPatrick Cantlay (UCLA, 2012).
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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