The Ben Hogan Award Reveals its 10 Semifinalists

FORT WORTH, Texas (Apr. 11, 2012) – Baird Private Wealth Management, in association with Colonial Country Club, The Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America, has announced the 10 semifinalists for the 2012 The Ben Hogan 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 represents leaders in professional, amateur and collegiate golf.

In alphabetical order, the 2012 The Ben Hogan Award semifinalists are:Blayne Barber (Auburn, Jr.), Julien Brun (TCU, Fr.), Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, So.), Dylan Frittelli (Texas, Sr.), Corbin Mills (Clemson, Jr.), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington, Fr.), Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, Fr.), Jordan Spieth (Texas, Fr.), Justin Thomas (Alabama, Fr.) and Chris Williams (Washington, Jr.).

The list of semifinalists was revealed on Golfweek TV.  To see the video releasing and discussing the 10 semifinalists please follow this link - http://golfweek.com/videos/2012/apr/11/1241/.

The list will be pared down to three finalists on Thursday, May 10. The three finalists will then attend a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 21, where the winner will be crowned prior to the start of the PGA TOUR’s Crowne Plaza Invitational.

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) and Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State, 2011).

In addition to the above list of winners, the prestigious list of previous semifinalists includes: Brian Harman, Dustin Johnson, Anthony Kim, Spencer Levin, Graeme McDowell, Webb Simpson, Camilo Villegas and Nick Watney among others.

To find the latest information on The Ben Hogan Award, its candidates and its previous winners, visit www.Facebook.com/BenHoganAward and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter.

About the Semifinalists

• The Ben Hogan Award semifinalist group includes one senior, three juniors, one sophomore and a record five freshmen.
• Three of the nominees have previously been named semifinalists (Blayne Barber-2011, Patrick Cantlay-2011, Dylan Frittelli-2010), with Cantlay ultimately being named a finalist last year.
• In the college rankings, the list includes the top five and seven of the top 10 players in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings as well as the top five and seven of the top nine in the Golfstat rankings.
• Among the amateur rankings, the semifinalists feature five of the top six and nine of the top 20 players in the R&A World Amateur rankings as well as five of the top six and eight of the top 20 in the Scratch Players World Amateur listing.
• Just eight universities are represented, as two schools (Texas and Washington) boast two nominees each. The two are the ninth and 10th schools since 2002 with at least two golfers among the final 10.
• With four, the Pac-12 Conference features the most semifinalists (Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan and Chris Williams, UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay and Stanford’s Patrick Rodgers). The other leagues with multiple student-athletes on the list are the Southeastern Conference (2) and Big 12 Conference (2).
• The 10 players hail from seven different states (California, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Texas) and three foreign countries (France, South Africa and Taiwan).
• The 10 semifinalists are comprised of schools in just five states:Alabama (2), California (2), South Carolina (1), Texas (3) and Washington (2).
• Alabama now has had a semifinalist in five consecutive years (MichaelThompson-2008, Bud Cauley-2009, 2010, 2011 and Justin Thomas-2012), which is the longest active streak in the country.
• Other schools with representatives at least two years in a row are:Stanford (3), Auburn (2) and UCLA (2).

About Baird

• Baird is an employee-owned, international wealth management, capitalmarkets, private equity and asset management firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Established in 1919, Baird has more than2,600 associates serving the needs of individual, corporate, institutional and municipal clients. Baird oversees and manages client assets of nearly $82 billion. Committed to being a great place to work, Baird ranked number21 on FORTUNE’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2012 – its ninth consecutive year on the list. Baird’s principal operating subsidiaries are Robert W. Baird & Co. in the United States and Robert W. Baird Group Ltd.in Europe. Baird also has an operating subsidiary in Asia supporting Baird’s private equity operations. For more information, please visit Baird’s Web site at www.rwbaird.com.