Norman Xiong of Oregon, a sophomore from Canyon Lake, Calif., has climbed to the top of the Fred Haskins Award watch list and also is listed among the semifinalists for the 2018 Ben Hogan Award.
Both awards go to a player deemed to be the top college golfer in the nation.
Xiong was 17th in the previous Haskins Award rankings three weeks ago, but has reeled off consecutive victories in the Duck Invitational, the Goodwin and the Western Intercollegiate and has five victories this season.
The remainder of the top 10 in the Hawkins Award Watch includes Collin Morikawa of Cal, Justin Suh of USC, Viktor Hovland of Oklahoma State, Fred Nilehn of Texas Tech.
Matt Wolff of Oklahoma State, Braden Thornberry of Mississippi, Chandler Phillips of Texas A&M, Theo Humphrey of Vanderbilt and Lee Hodges of Alabama.
Voting for the Haskins Award will open at the conclusion of the NCAA Regional Championships and will end at the conclusion of the NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Okla., on May 25-30.
In addition to Xiong, the Ben Hogan Award semifinalists include Suh from San Jose, Morikawa from La Canada Flintridge, Shintaro Ban of UNLV and San Jose, Thornberry, Humphrey, Hovland, Nilehn, Zach Bauchou of Oklahoma State and Doug Ghim of Texas.
Each semifinalist’s school receives a scholarship grant for its men’s golf program. Since 2002, the Hogan Trophy Award Foundation has awarded over $700,000 in scholarships to more than two dozen universities.
On May 2, the semifinalists will be pared down to three finalists. The three finalists will travel to Fort Worth, Texas, where the winner will be crowned at Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 21, before the start of the PGA Tour’s Fort Worth Invitational.
