Virginia golfer Derek Bard named to Ben Hogan Award watch list

Virginia junior golfer Derek Bard (New Hartford, N.Y.) has been named to the 2016 Ben Hogan Award watch list. The most prestigious award in men’s college golf, The Ben Hogan Award is issued annually to the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer taking into account all collegiate and amateur competitions during the past 12-month period.

Last summer Bard reached the finals of the U.S. Amateur Championship and won the Sunnehanna Amateur. He helped Virginia to an 18th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. He had five top-10 finishes during his sophomore season and won the U.S. Collegiate title. Thanks to his finish at the U.S. Amateur, Bard received an invitation to compete in this year’s Masters tournament in April and the U.S. Open in June.

Bard and his UVA teammates open the spring portion of their schedule Feb. 17-19 at the John Burns Intercollegiate in Kauai, Hawaii.

The 2016 Ben Hogan Award watch list, as determined by the award’s subcommittee, includes: Dawson Armstrong (Lipscomb), Derek Bard (Virginia), Sean Crocker (Southern California), Charlie Danielson (Illinois), Thomas Detry (Illinois), Jonathan Garrick (UCLA), Nick Hardy (Illinois), Rico Hoey (Southern California), Sam Horsfield (Florida), Beau Hossler (Texas), Michael Johnson (Auburn), Hank Lebioda (Florida State), Lee McCoy (Georgia), Maverick McNealy (Stanford), Matthew NeSmith (South Carolina), Jordan Niebrugge (Oklahoma State), Corey Pereira (Washington), Jon Rahm (Arizona State), Antoine Rozner (UMKC), Matthias Schwab (Vanderbilt), Robby Shelton (Alabama), Aaron Wise (Oregon), Adam Wood (Duke), Cameron Young (Wake Forest) and Will Zalatoris (Wake Forest).

The Ben Hogan Award Selection Committee, which votes during each stage of the process, is comprised of leaders in professional, amateur and collegiate golf.

The list of 10 semifinalists, which could include individuals not on the watch list, will be unveiled onWednesday, April 13. On Tuesday, May 3, that group will be pared down to three finalists. The finalists will attend a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday, May 23, prior to the start of the PGA TOUR’s Colonial National Invitation Tournament, where the winner will be crowned.

Arizona State’s Jon Rahm won the award in 2015 and is trying to become the first player ever to win the award twice. Other top returnees include McNealy, who was a finalist for the award last year, and a trio of semifinalists in Hossler, McCoy and Shelton. Nine of the golfers–Danielson, Detry, Hoey, Hossler, McCoy, McNealy, Rahm, Shelton and Zalatoris–appear on the watch list for the second straight season.

The award, which was first issued in 1990 and also included academic achievement in its original list of standards, revised its criteria for the 2001-02 collegiate season to its current standard of honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer.

Since that time, the winners have been: D.J. Trahan (Clemson, 2002), Ricky Barnes (Arizona, 2003), Hunter Mahan (Oklahoma State, 2003), Bill Haas (Wake Forest, 2004), Ryan Moore (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), Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, 2012), Chris Williams (Washington, 2013), Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, 2014) and Rahm (Arizona State, 2015).