COLUMBUS, Ga. (June 11, 2013) -- Michael Kim became the first Cal men's golfer to ever win the Haskins Award when he was announced Tuesday by the Fred Haskins Commission as the winner of the prestigious honor’s 43rd annual award. The award is given to the national player of the year in men's collegiate golf and selected in voting by college golfers and coaches along with members of the national media.
Kim will receive a sponsor’s exemption to play July 4-7 in the Greenbrier Classic, a stop on the PGA Tour played at the Old White TPC in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia. The award will be presented July 2 at a dinner prior to the tournament.
“I’m really honored and excited to be the winner of the Haskins Award,” Kim said. “It’s unbelievable to think my name will be on the same trophy as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and many others. I can’t wait for the opportunity to play at the Greenbrier Classic with the very best players in the world.”
“This is further recognition of Michael’s tremendous season,” head coach Steve Desimone said. “This award is so special because it includes a vote of his peers in college golf and the sport’s coaches. I don’t think there’s anything question Michael has won this award because they know he was the best player in college golf this year.”
The honor was the latest for Kim, who previously earned two other national player of the year honors in 2012-13 as the winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award presented by the Golf Coaches Association of America and the Golfweek/Sagarin Player of the Year. He finished the season as the No. 1 ranked player according to Golfweek and won the Golfstat Cup for having the lowest adjusted stroke average heading into the NCAA Championship. Kim was also a Golfweek and Division I PING First-Team All-American, All-West Region selection and Pac-12 Men's Golfer of the Year. In addition, he was one of three national finalists for The Ben Hogan Award given by the GCAA to the top amateur player among collegiate golfers.
Kim was individual medalist in 2012-13 a single-season school-record four times (Isleworth Collegiate Invitational, Arizona Intercollegiate, John A. Burns Intercollegiate, Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters). He totaled seven top-five finishes, also tying for second at both the Gopher Invitational and Western Intercollegiate while tying for fifth at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational. Kim was in the top 10 in 10 of 14 stroke-play events and posted an adjusted stroke-play average of 70.14 over 43 rounds.
Two days following the end of Cal’s 2012-13 season, Kim qualified for the 2013 U.S. Open by being the co-medalist during a sectional qualifying event at Hawks Ridge Golf Club in Ball Ground, Ga. Later in the week, he was instrumental in leading Team USA to a Palmer Cup victory over Team Europe.
The 2012-13 Cal golf team was the nation’s No. 1 team in both the final 2012-13 Golfstat and Golfweek rankings released after the NCAA Championship despite a match-play loss to Illinois in the semifinals of the NCAAs. Cal won 12 of 14 stroke-play events during the season to set a modern-day NCAA record, including the 54-hole stroke play portion of the NCAA Championship to enter match play as the top seed for the first time in school history. Cal also won NCAA Regional and Pac-12 Championship titles for the second consecutive season and had earlier victories at the Gopher Invitational, PING/Golfweek Preview (shared with Georgia Tech), Pac-12 Preview, Alister MacKenzie Invitational, Isleworth Collegiate Invitational, John A. Burns Intercollegiate, Fresno State Lexus Classic, Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters and Western Intercollegiate.Three Cal players finished in the top five in the voting for the 2013 award with Max Homa second and Brandon Hagy also in the top five along with Alabama’s Bobby Wyatt and Cory Whitsett.
The Haskins Award is sponsored by Stifel, a financial services company based in St. Louis, Mo., Golfweek and the Greenbrier Classic. Previous winners of the Haskins Award have won 28 majors and more than 260 professional tournaments around the world. Ben Crenshaw (Texas) and Phil Mickelson (Arizona State) each won the event three times and are on a list of winners that includes Tiger Woods (Stanford), Matt Kuchar (Georgia Tech), Luke Donald (Northwestern) and Graeme McDowell (Alabama-Birmingham).
The award honors the late Fred Haskins, resident pro at the Country Club of Columbus, who shared the values and traditions of amateur golf with generations of young people in Saturday morning clinics that never cost more than a dime.
The Fred Haskins Commission, a 501© (3) organization in Columbus, Ga., has governed the Haskins Award since 1970 and in partnership with legendary golfer Annika Sorenstam it will begin honoring the top female college player with the Annika Award in 2014.
“Voters have once again recognized an outstanding golfer and an equally impressive young man,” said J. Madden Hatcher Jr., the commission president. “Michael Kim was the No. 1 player on the nation’s No. 1 team and certainly deserves to have his name added to the Haskins Award’s legendary list of past winners.”