Haskins Award: Final watch list for 2022-23 men's college golf season
22 May 2023
by Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com
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The Fred Haskins Commission announced today the final watch list for the 2023 Fred Haskins Award presented by Stifel, recognizing the most outstanding NCAA male Division I collegiate golfer for the 2022-23 season as voted on by his fellow players, coaches and the college golf media.
The 10 players were selected for the final Haskins Award watch list based on their performances in the 2022-23 college golf season and all of the finalists will be competing in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships, taking place May 26-31 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 30th on Golf Channel. Past winners of the Haskins Award include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw and last season's winner, Chris Gotterup.
Here's a look at the top finalists for this year's award:
• • • • •
Ludvig Aberg, Sr., Texas Tech
Golfweek/Sagarin's top-ranked amateur in the world has been on quite a run this spring. He successfully defended his Big 12 Championship and then earned medalist honors at the Norman Regional. He has four victories this season and nine top-10 finishes for the Red Raiders. The Swede turned in a dominating performance at the Big 12 Championships when he rolled to an eight-shot victory that shattered multiple different Big 12 Championship records including lowest score to par (-15), lowest three-round score (196) and lowest four-round score (265). He is looking to become just the second player in the award's illustrious history to repeat
Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Sr., Illinois
The fifth-year senior has been the toast of Champaign for the Big 10 champion Illini. The Belgian won the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate and has top-16 finishes in all 12 events on the year, including four additional runner-up finishes. He closed as Illinois first- or second-place finisher in nine events, pacing the squad in a team-leading six tournaments, and is tied for the team lead with 27 (out of 35) rounds at par or better. A four-time All-Big Ten selection, Dumont de Chassart was presented with his second straight Les Bolstad Award as the Big Ten golfer with the league's best stroke average through the conference championship; His average of 69.63 was the lowest mark on record since the Bolstad Award's inception in 1974, and it has now dipped to 69.54, on pace to break the program record mark he established last season.
David Ford, Soph., North Carolina
The North Carolina sophomore won the Jackson T. Stephens Cup at Seminole Golf Club and was second at the Fighting Irish Classic, Williams Cup and Valspar Collegiate Invitational among his eight top-10 finishes in 10 tournaments this season. The first Tar Heel to garner ACC Player of the Year honors, Ford is UNC's career leader in stroke average and scores to par.
Ben James, Fr., Virginia
The only freshman among the finalists, James has won a school-record five tournaments this season and has placed in the top four at 10 of 12 tournaments this year. Most recently, he was co-medalist at the NCAA Las Vegas Regional, matching his school record 54-hole scoring mark by shooting 20-under 196. At UVA’s season-opening tournament at the Streamsong Invitational, he shot 20-under, 196 to capture medalist honors. James was also first at the Hamptons Intercollegiate, the General Hackler Championships and UVA’s own Lewis Chitengwa Memorial.
Tommy Kuhl, Sr., Illinois
Kuhl has won back-to-back first-team All-Big Ten honors as a unanimous selection in 2023. The Morton, Ill., native has continued to build off of his stellar 2021-22 season, to again rank among the nation's top performers. He is second on the team with a season stroke average of 70.17, nearly two strokes ahead of his previous season-best (71.85) set last season. Kuhl placed as the Illini's top finisher in five events this season, the second-most on the team behind Dumont de Chassart. Entering the NCAA Championship, he has 12 consecutive top-16 finishes, including seven top-5s.
Christo Lamprecht, Jr., Georgia Tech
Ranked No. 6 nationally by Golfstat and No 5 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index, Lamprecht has a victory and three runner-up finishes in 2022-23. The junior from George, South Africa won the Inverness Intercollegiate in the fall, and this spring has finished second at the Watersound Invitational, the Linger Longer Invitational and The Goodwin. He has been the team’s highest finisher in six of 10 stroke play events. His 69.17 stroke average would stand as a Georgia Tech record if maintained for the remainder of the spring.
Maxwell Moldovan, Sr., Ohio State
Moldovan has ten top-10 finishes, including seven top-fives, in 12 events this season. He is coming off a win at the NCAA Auburn Regional which was the fourth victory of his career. The Uniontown, Ohio native set the program’s single-season scoring record in each of his first two seasons and is on pace to break it again, this time by more than half a stroke. He is averaging 70.46 over 35 rounds.
Gordon Sargent, Soph., Vanderbilt
Sargent, the reigning NCAA national champion and all-time leader in career wins (5) at Vandy, competed at the Masters Tournament and won individual titles at the East Lake Cup, John Hayt Invitational and Mason Rudolph Championship this season. He most recently tied for seventh at the Auburn Regional. Sargent has placed in the top 10 in all 11 tournaments he has competed in this season, including eight top-fives, and carries a 68.1 stroke average. He finished first in the 2023 Arnold Palmer Cup standings and will compete for the United States again this summer. Atop both the Golfstat Individual Rankings and the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings, Sargent is listed second in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and third by Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com.
Preston Summerhays, Soph., Arizona State
The Arizona State sophomore won the Thunderbird Collegiate and had seven top-10 finishes. Summerhays currently sits as the No. 6 golfer in the nation on Golfstat and the second-best underclassman behind Gordon Sargent.
Michael Thorbjorsen, Jr., Stanford
Thorbjornsen has enjoyed an impressive junior campaign with two wins, eight top 8s and four top-3 finishes. His 68.77 scoring average through 31 rounds is on pace to break Maverick McNealy's school record of 69.05 set during his Haskins Award-winning season of 2014-15. The 2023 Pac-12 Golfer of the Year, Thorbjornsen has claimed victories at the season-opening Fighting Illini Invitational and also won the Pac-12 Championships. In total, he has helped the Cardinal to three team victories this season. Of his 31 rounds entering NCAA Championships, Thorbjornsen has played 25 of them at even-par or better.
Special thanks to the respective university's athletic communications departments for their contributions to this report