April 16, 2008
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech sophomore golfer Chesson Hadley has been named one of 10 semifinalists for the 2008 Ben Hogan Award, which is presented by Chesapeake Energy, in association with Colonial Country Club, The Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA).
The Hogan is presented annually to the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or junior college golfer taking into account all collegiate and amateur competitions during the last 12 months.
Hadley, from Raleigh, N.C., recently was named to the watch list for the Jack Nicklaus Award, and is the nation’s No. 6-ranked individual player according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index. Hadley, playing for the eighth-ranked Division I team in then nation, leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring average (70.73), has won one collegiate tournament this year and has finished in the top 10 of five events.
The other semifinalists are Jonas Blixt of Florida State, UCLA’s Kevin Chappell, Jonas Enander Hedin of Charlotte, Oklahoma State’s Rickie Fowler, Rory Hie and Jamie Lovemark of Southern California, Wake Forest’s Webb Simpson, Joel Sjoholm of Georgia State and Alabama’s Michael Thompson.
The Hogan Award finalists will be announced on May 7 and invited to Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, for the Hogan Award presentation on the evening of May 18. The 1964 U.S. Open winner and former CBS golf analyst Ken Venturi will be the keynote speaker.
2008 The Ben Hogan Semifinalists
(in alphabetical order)
Jonas Blixt, Florida StateKevin Chappell, UCLAJonas Enander Hedin, CharlotteRickie Fowler, Oklahoma StateChesson Hadley, Georgia TechRory Hie, Southern CaliforniaJamie Lovemark, Southern CaliforniaWebb Simpson, Wake ForestJoel Sjoholm, Georgia StateMichael Thompson, Alabama
