Tech's Ludvig Aberg wins Ben Hogan Award as top male college golfer
Texas Tech junior Ludvig Aberg on Monday night was named winner of the Ben Hogan Award as the nation's top male college golfer this year.
The annual award takes into account performance in college, amateur and professional events over the previous 12 months.
Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett and Oklahoma State’s Eugenio Chacarra were the other finalists. The three were honored and the winner named at a black-tie dinner Monday night at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.
"Growing up in Sweden, I never really imagined being here right now,” Aberg said in his acceptance speech. "It’s a long ways from home, but it’s really cool to be here. I’m humbled and honored to be here tonight standing next to Sam and Eugenio. They push me all the time in competitive golf.
"I’m overwhelmed to have my name associated with Ben Hogan. It’s really special. He stood for relentless work ethic, and that’s what I aspire to."
Aberg is the first winner from Texas Tech and the third in the past five years from the Big 12. Doug Ghim from Texas won in 2018, and Viktor Hovland from Oklahoma State won in 2019. Aberg, from Eslov, Sweden, is the third European to win the Ben Hogan Award, following Spain's Jon Rahm, who played at Arizona State, and Hovland from Norway.
Charles Schwab Challenge tournament chairman Jim Whitten gave Aberg the first invitation into next year's event on the PGA Tour.
In college tournaments this school year, Aberg has nine consecutive top-15 finishes, including wins at The Prestige and the Big 12 tournament. He tied for sixth place last week at the NCAA New Haven Regional, from which the Red Raiders will advance to the NCAA championship tournament.
Aberg has a scoring average of 70.03 strokes per round over 11 college events this season and has finished no worse than sixth in his last seven tournaments. He is No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Aberg was runner-up at the 2021 European Amateur, tied for 30th at the European Tour's Scandanavian Mixed and tied for 51st on the PGA Tour's 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. He also has been selected to participate on the international team at the Arnold Palmer Cup, which is scheduled for July 1-3 in Switzerland.
Three of the top six players in the Official World Golf Ranking are past Hogan Award recipients: No. 2 Rahm (2015, 2016), No. 5 Patrick Cantlay (2012) and No. 6 Hovland (2019). No. 3 Collin Morikawa (2018, 2019) was a Hogan Award finalist in 2018, 2019. He was guest speaker at Monday's presentation.
The Hogan Award began honoring the outstanding amateur college golfer at Colonial in 2002. Before the move to Fort Worth, the original Ben Hogan Trophy, which used a different set of criteria to determine the winner, was issued by FOG at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles beginning in 1990.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech's Ludvig Aberg wins Ben Hogan Award as top male college golfer
