Finalists Announced for 2024 NAIA Jack Nicklaus Award presented by Workday
NORMAN, Okla. - Five finalists have been named for the 2024 NAIA Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Workday. They are Tom Scullion of Cumberland (TN), Kolby Shackelford of OUAZ, Jackson Stone of Truett McConnell, Isac Wallin of Keiser, and Jack Whaley of Dalton State. 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.
Scullion led the Phoenix with seven top-five finishes and three wins before earning the first Mid-South Conference (MSC) Golfer of the Year honor in program history. The sophomore from Wiltshire, England, won the NAIA National Preview, Gibson Bay Invitational, and MSC Fall Preview in October to be named the October 2023 NAIA SwingU College Player of the Month and 2023 NAIA SwingU College Player of the Fall. Seven of Scullion’s 14 rounds in the fall were 69 or better and he is currently ranked ninth in the Scoreboard powered by Clippd National Rankings while having been ranked inside the top 10 for most of 2024.
Shackelford transferred to OUAZ after being a PING Second-Team All-American and national champion at Kirkwood (NJCAA Division II). The junior from Panora, Iowa, led the Spirit and first-time Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) Men’s Coach of the Year Tina Barrett with seven top-five finishes and three wins, including the GSAC Championship. Shackelford, who is ranked eighth in Scoreboard powered by Clippd’s National Rankings and was March 2024’s NAIA SwingU College Player of the Month, carded 14 birdies, two eagles, and an 11-under 205 (70-68-67) to win in a playoff against teammate Colby Watkins.
Stone recorded top-five finishes in nine of his 11 tournaments and a win in one of the nation’s top fields en route to First-Team All-Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) accolades. Ranked third in the Scoreboard powered by Clippd National Rankings, the sophomore used 11 birdies and a one-under 212 (68-72-72) to fend off Whaley and win The Invite at Innisbrook by one stroke. With five rounds in the 60s, Stone, a 2023 PING Third-Team All-American, led the Bears and AAC Coach of the Year Steve Patton to eight top-five finishes and their second straight AAC Championship. Truett McConnell looks to make the NAIA Championship cut for the second time in as many years and program history.
Ranked first in Scoreboard powered by Clippd’s National Rankings, Wallin became the first Seahawk to earn Sun Conference Golfer of the Year honors multiple times after finishing no worse than 10th in a tournament this season. The senior from Kungsängen, Sweden, won four of his nine tournaments, including the Saint Leo Invitational in February that fielded 19 NCAA Division II programs, four of whom were ranked in the top 17 nationally by the Bushnell/Golfweek DII Coaches Poll. Wallin shot a school-record 54-hole total of 199 (65-67-67, -17) for the six-stroke victory that gave him over 285 weight points and the nation’s top ranking. Finishing inside the top five seven times, the two-time PING First-Team All-American led Keiser to four victories.
After being a 2023 English Amateur Championship semifinalist, Whaley began his collegiate career with a dominant fall that included wins at the Coastal Georgia Fall Invitational and Bojangles Tennessee Intercollegiate with two other top-eight finishes. The freshman from Doncaster, England, recorded three more top-10 results and finished no worse than 14th this spring en route to receiving Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Player and Freshman of the Year honors. Ranked second in the Scoreboard powered by Clippd National Rankings, Whaley led the Roadrunners to seven victories, including in five of their last six tournaments, and a top-three finish in the two events they didn’t win while being the top-ranked team in all but three weeks during 2024.
All five finalists are competing this week at the 2024 NAIA Championship at Dalton Golf and Country Club in Dalton, Ga.
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.
About the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday
The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday is held annually at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. The Tournament, founded and hosted by Jack Nicklaus, is conducted each year with three goals in mind: to honor the memory of individuals living and deceased who have distinguished themselves in the game of golf; to showcase the world’s best golfers competing on one of the most challenging venues in the world for the enjoyment of spectators; and to benefit many Greater Columbus Charities in alliance with the Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and numerous other local organizations. For more information, visit www.thememorialtournament.com or call 614-889-6700.
About Workday
Workday is a leading enterprise platform that helps organizations manage their most important assets – their people and money. The Workday platform is built with AI at the core to help customers elevate people, supercharge work, and move their business forever forward. Workday is used by more than 10,000 organizations around the world and across industries – from medium-sized businesses to more than 50% of the Fortune 500. For more information about Workday, visit workday.com.