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Oregon’s Wyndham Clark Named Ben Hogan Award Finalist

Senior Wyndham Clark of the University of Oregon men’s golf team has been named a finalist for the 2017 Ben Hogan Award as announced by Colonial Country Club, Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) on Tuesday. Clark’s fellow finalists are Maverick McNealy of Stanford and Dylan Meyer of Illinois.

Photo by Cliff Grassmick

The Ben Hogan Award is presented by Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc (Konica Minolta) to the top men’s golfer in both collegiate and amateur competitions over the past 12 months.

This is the first time a golfer from Oregon has been represented.

“I couldn’t have dreamed of the season going any better,” said Clark. “I didn’t have that high of expectations coming in; I just wanted to get better and be a part of the team. I’ve just been blessed it’s gone this well, and the team has done this well.”

This season, Clark won three tournaments to most recently include the Pac-12 individual crown – Oregon’s first since 1978 – in addition to help lead the team to their first outright Pac-12 title since 1959. The Denver native also finished runner-up three times and has never finished below 15 in all of 11 events. In 31 rounds, Clark has an average of 69.57 and eighteen scores have been in the 60s. On Monday, Clark was named the Pac-12 Golfer of the Month. He advanced to the Round of 32 at the 2016 U.S. Amateur after tying for sixth in the stroke-play portion of the event. In addition, he shared 20th place at last summer’s Western Amateur. Clark is currently ranked No. 1 in both the Golfstat and Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.

In March, the native of Denver, Colo. earned status on the 2017 Mackenzie Tour by placing among the top 10 at the Canada-based tour’s qualifying tournament.

The award’s recipient will be announced at a black-tie dinner at the Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 22. The 2017 Ben Hogan Award recipient will receive the first exemption into the PGA TOUR’s 2018 Dean & DeLuca Invitational, as well as earn a $30,000 grant for its men’s golf scholarship program.

A limited number of seats for the dinner remain. To purchase, call Jimmie Whitt at (817) 972-4280. The banquet will be streamed live on TheBenHoganAward.org beginning at 8:00 p.m. (CT).

Notable finalists include current PGA TOUR players Cheng-Tsung Pan (2015), Ollie Schniederjans (2014), Michael Kim (2013), Jordan Spieth (2012), Kevin Tway (2011), Russell Henley (2010), Bud Cauley (2010), and Michael Thompson (2008).

This is the eighth consecutive season that the Pac-12 has had at least one finalist. The Conference of Champions has had at least two nominees six years running and 13 of the last 18 finalists since 2012.

A Pac-12 player has won The Ben Hogan Award for five consecutive years – Arizona State’s Jon Rahm (2015 and 2016), Stanford’s Patrick Rodgers (2014), Washington’s Chris Williams (2013), and UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay (2012).