FORT WORTH, Tex. – Kyle Souza has been selected as a finalist for the most prestigious honors in men’s college golf – the Ben Hogan Award. Souza, a Chico State senior, is one of 28 athletes named to the watch list for the award and the lone Division II athlete.
 
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.
 
The award is presented by Baird Private Wealth Management, in association with Colonial Country Club, The Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America.
 
The 2012 The Ben Hogan Award Watch List includes: Souza, Blayne Barber (Auburn, Jr.), Zac Blair (BYU, Jr.), Julien Brun (TCU, Fr.), Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, So.), Sean Dale (North Florida, Jr.), Derek Ernst (UNLV, Sr.), Dylan Frittelli (Texas, Sr.), Luke Guthrie (Illinois, Sr.), Stephan Jaeger (Chattanooga, Sr.), Brooks Koepka (Florida State, Sr.), Jace Long (Missouri, Jr.), Bryden Macpherson (Georgia, Jr.), Daniel Miernicki (Oregon, Sr.), Corbin Mills (Clemson, Jr.), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington, Fr.), Thomas Pieters (Illinois, So.), Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, Fr.), Jordan Spieth (Texas, Fr.), Justin Thomas (Alabama, Fr.), Ethan Tracy (Arkansas, Sr.), Harold Varner (East Carolina, Sr.), T.J. Vogel (Florida, Jr.), James White (Georgia Tech, Sr.), Cory Whitsett (Alabama, So.), Chris Williams (Washington, Jr.), Eugene Wong (Oregon, Sr.) and Andrew Yun (Stanford, Jr.).
 
Souza, the defending NCAA Division II National Champion, is currently the top-ranked Division II golfer in the nation and ranked No. 23 in the Golfstat Cup Standings, which include all divisions of collegiate golf. The Livermore high school product notched three wins and one runner-up finish in four fall tournaments and placed sixth at the Division I dominated Amer Ari Invitational last week, which featured 11 other soon-to-be Hogan Award watch listers. Souza finished four strokes behind Spieth, two behind Rodgers, one behind Yun and White, and ahead of the other seven: Brun, Cantlay, Fritelli, Miernicki, Wong, Pan and Williams.
 
A list of 10 semifinalists will be unveiled on Wednesday, April 11, and then will be pared down to three finalists on Thursday, May 10. The winner will be crowned at a banquet at Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 21, prior to the start of the PGA TOUR’s Crowne Plaza Invitational.
 
That gives Souza three more tournaments to attempt to improve the impression he’s already clearly made on the selection committee prior to the announcement of the 10 semifinalists. The three semifinalists will be announced right after the NCAA Championship Super Regional. And the winner will be announced the weekend after Souza hopes to defend his NCAA title.
 
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).
 
Each of the first nine listed above is currently playing full time on the PGA TOUR. Over the last 10 PGA TOUR tournaments, former Hogan Award winners have recorded three victories and two runner-up finishes.
 
To find the latest information on The Ben Hogan Award, its candidates and its previous winners, visit www.Facebook.com/BenHoganAward and @BenHoganAward on Twitter.
 
For an exclusive video of the Watch List announcement, visit http://golfweek.com/videos/2012/feb/08/1208/.
 
About the Candidates

• The Ben Hogan Award Watch List includes 11 seniors, nine juniors, three sophomores and five freshmen.
• The list includes the top 13 players in the latest Golfweek individual rankings and 19 of the top 25. It also features the top 3, 7 of the top 10 and 14 of the top 25 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Finally, it boasts 3 of the top 5, 6 of the top 10 and 16 of the top 30 in the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking.
• A total of 22 universities are represented. Six schools (Alabama, Illinois, Oregon, Stanford, Texas and Washington) have two nominees.
• With seven, the Pac-12 has the most nominees among any conference. The other conferences with multiple student-athletes on the Watch List include: SEC (6), ACC (3), Big 12 (3), Big 10 (2) and MWC (2).
• The 28 players hail from 14 different states and seven foreign countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, South Africa and Taiwan). The states represented include: California (4), Florida (4), Texas (2), Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Utah.
• The list includes four 2011 PING First-Team All-Americans (Patrick Cantlay, Luke Guthrie, James White and Andrew Yun), three Second-Team All-Americans (Blayne Barber, Cory Whitsett and Chris Williams) and one Third-Team All-American (Dylan Frittelli).
• UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay was one of the three The Ben Hogan Award finalists in 2011.

 
*It should be noted that Souza is also a 2011 PING First Team All-American at the Division II level.