April 18, 2013
FORT WORTH, Texas - Michael Kim has been named one of 10 national semifinalists for The Ben Hogan Award announced Thursday by the Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts brand, in conjunction with Colonial Country Club, The Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America.
"It's a great honor just to be on the watch list at all," head coach Steve Desimone said. "To move up into being a semifinalist is again recognition of just how well Michael has been playing in so many respects. He is doing so many things right. It's well-deserved. Let's hope he can finish it. Wouldn't it be great if Michael can pull this one off."
Kim is the nation's No. 1 player in the latest rankings released by both Golfweek and Golfstat. Kim has won a school-record four tournaments in 2012-13 and finished in the top 10 in all but one of his 11 regular-season events with his lowest finish a tie for 11th.
In addition to outright victories at the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational and Fresno State Lexus Classic, he shared a win with teammate Joël Stalter at the Arizona Intercollegiate and made it into a four-way playoff at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters that was eventually won by Stanford's Patrick Rodgers. Kim has tied for second twice (Gopher Invitational, Western Intercollegiate), tied for fifth (Alister MacKenzie Invitational), tied for sixth (Pac-12 Preview), tied for ninth (John A. Burns Intercollegiate), tied for 10th (PING/Golfweek Preview) and tied for 11th (ASU Thunderbird Invitational).
In addition to being named a national semifinalist for The Ben Hogan Award, Kim has also been the Pac-12 Player of the Month twice (October 2012, March 2013), captured a Golfweek Player of the Week honor (February 4, 2013) and is the top candidate on the Haskins Award Watch List given annually to the nation's top collegiate player by Golfweek. He is also the No. 1 ranked player for the United States in the latest Palmer Cup Ranking, with the final ranking and naming of both the United States and European teams scheduled to take place April 22.
In addition to leading the nation with a 69.88 stroke average, Kim paces the country in birdies (129), sand saves percentage (78.9%) and short game percentage (73.6%).
Cal has won a school-record nine tournaments in 2012-13 that is one short of the unofficial NCAA record of 10 by the 1985-86 Oklahoma State team. Cal has won its nine tournaments over 11 starts in dominating fashion by a combined total of 135 strokes and has a record of 149-3-1 against all opponents in its fields. Cal has won 15 of its last 25 events overall dating back to the beginning of the 2011-12 campaign and finished in the top five in all 25. Cal has finished no worse than third in 2012-13 at the Arizona Intercollegiate.
Other finalists for The Ben Hogan Award in alphabetical order include Julien Brun (TCU), Albin Choi (North Carolina State), Sean Dale (North Florida), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington), Patrick Rodgers (Stanford), Brandon Stone (Texas), Justin Thomas (Alabama), Chris Williams (Washington) and Bobby Wyatt (Alabama).
The honor presented annually to the top men's NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer takes into account all collegiate and amateur competitions during the 12-month period dating from the previous award's banquet, which is held annually during the NCAA Championship. The Ben Hogan Award Selection Committee is made up of 23 leaders and experts in amateur, college and professional golf.
The group of 10 semifinalists will be pared down to three finalists on Wednesday, May 8. The winner will be crowned at a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 20, prior to the start of the PGA TOUR's Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
This year marks the first year that the Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts brand is the official sponsor of The Ben Hogan Award. The Crowne Plaza brand is in its second year of sponsorship with PGA TOUR professional golfer Rickie Fowler, the 2008 winner of The Ben Hogan Award. The Crowne Plaza brand is the title sponsor of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial through 2015. In addition, IHG®, the parent company of the Crowne Plaza brand, is the Official Hotel and Resort Partner of the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Web.com Tour. The 2013 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial will be held May 20-26 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial is the longest running PGA TOUR tournament still being held at the original site. Visit crowneplaza.com/golf for more information.
The award, which was first issued in 1990 and 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 win¬ners 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) and Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, 2012).
To find the latest information on The Ben Hogan Award, its candidates and its previous winners, visit TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter.
