McCarthy Named to Ben Hogan Award Watch List

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March 16, 2015

Fort Worth, Texas – Virginia senior Denny McCarthy (Rockville, Md.) is among 24 collegiate golfers named to the watch list for the 2015 Ben Hogan Award. It marks the second consecutive season he has been a candidate for the award.

The most prestigious award in men’s college golf, The Ben Hogan Award is presented 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.

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

McCarthy currently boasts a 70.7 stroke average through seven tournaments this season. A total of 16 of his 20 rounds have been at par or below par. He tied the UVa single-round scoring record by shooting 9-under 63 at the U.S. Collegiate. He has added three top-10 finishes to his resume to improve his career total to 19.

Last year McCarthy earned second-team All-America honors from Golfweek and PING after finishing sixth at the NCAA Championships. He made his sixth appearance at the USGA’s Amateur Championship, reaching the semifinal round of match play. He helped the three-man USGA team to the World Amateur Team Championship in Japan.

McCarthy is joined on the watch list by Jimmy Beck (Kennesaw State), Brian Campbell (Illinois), Charlie Danielson (Illinois), Bryson Dechambeau (SMU), Thomas Detry (Illinois), Matt Gilchrest (Auburn), Gavin Green (New Mexico), Rico Hoey (Southern California), Beau Hossler (Texas), Kyle Jones (Baylor), Jack Maguire (Florida State), Denny McCarthy (Virginia), Lee McCoy (Georgia), Maverick McNealy (Stanford), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington), Jon Rahm (Arizona State), Max Rotluff (Arizona State), Xander Schauffele (San Diego State), Ollie Schniederjans (Georgia Tech), Robby Shelton (Alabama), Clement Sordet (Texas Tech), Hunter Stewart (Vanderbilt), Scott Vincent (Virginia Tech) and Will Zalatoris (Wake Forest).

The list of 10 semifinalists, which could include individuals not on the current list, will be unveiled on Wednesday, April 15. On Wednesday, May 6, that group will be pared down to three finalists. The winner will be crowned at a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday, May 18, prior to the start of the PGA TOUR’s Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

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) and Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, 2014).

To find the latest information on The Ben Hogan Award, its candidates and its previous winners, visit TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter.

ABOUT THE CANDIDATES
• The Ben Hogan Award Watch List includes 11 seniors, six juniors, six sophomores and one freshman.
• The list includes each of the top 10 players in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings and 17 are currently ranked among the top 25. It also contains each of the top 10 players and 19 of the top 25 golfers in the most recent Golfstat rankings.
• The list includes six of the top 10 golfers and 14 of the top 25 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. It also boasts eight of the top 10 golfers and 13 of the top 25 players in the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking.
• A total of 21 universities are represented on the watch list. Only two schools–Illinois (3) and Arizona State (2)–have multiple honorees.
• This is the 10th consecutive year that Stanford has had a player named to the watch list, the longest active streak by any school. The next longest active streaks are owned by Alabama (8) and Illinois (6).
• The ACC and Pac-12 lead the way among conferences with five watch list members each. Other leagues with multiple members include: SEC (4), Big Ten (3), Big 12 (3) and Mountain West (2).
• Seven of the 24 players hail from foreign countries. Belgium, France, Germany, Malaysia, Spain, Taiwan and Zimbabwe are all represented.
• Three schools have a member on the watch list for the first time ever (Baylor, Kennesaw State and San Diego State). However, Baylor’s Ryan Baca was a semifinalist in 2006 despite not appearing on the watch list.
• Sixteen of the 24 golfers are appearing on the watch list for the first time. Those previously named are: Bryson Dechambeau (2014), Thomas Detry (2014), Gavin Green (2014), Denny McCarthy (2014), Cheng-Tsung Pan (2012, 2013, 2014), Ollie Schniederjans (2014), Robby Shelton (2014) and Scott Vincent (2014).
• Georgia Tech’s Ollie Schniederjans is the lone player on the watch list to be a previous finalist for the award (2014).
• Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan, a three-time award semifinalist, appears on the watch list for the fourth straight season. He is the first player ever named four times. • SMU’s Bryson Dechambeau was a 2014 semifinalist.
• Wake Forest’s Will Zalatoris is the lone freshman to make the list.