Three of the top men’s college golfers named 2020 Ben Hogan Award finalists
The Hogan Trophy Award Foundation, Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) have announced that Vanderbilt senior John Augenstein, Florida freshman Ricky Castillo and Pepperdine senior Sahith Theegala are the three finalists for the Golfstat individual rankings presented by Konica Minolta.
All three golfers are first-time finalists, which is given annually to the top men’s college golfer among collegiate and amateur competitions over the past 12 months. This year’s season was cut short due to the 2020 Ben Hogan Award, meaning that all tournaments played between May 21, 2019 and March 12, 2020, were considered.
The selection committee is made up of 30 leaders and experts in amateur, college and professional golf. The recipient will be named in June. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s Ben Hogan Award dinner will not be held. The 2020 recipient earns the first invitation into the PGA Tour’s 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge and will be honored during that week’s festivities.
“On behalf of the Hogan Trophy Award Foundation, I would like to congratulate John, Ricky and Sahith on being named finalists for the most prestigious award in men’s college and amateur golf,” Ben Hogan Award Chairman Harold Muckleroy said in a press release. “While the college golf season may have been shortened, the accomplishments of these three men over a nine-month period stand tall. We’d like to thank our esteemed selection committee for their hard work in selecting three deserving finalists among a field of outstanding contenders.”
Augenstein is listed second in the Golfstat individual rankings and fourth in the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking (SPWAR). He was the runner up last summer at the U.S. Amateur Championship, earning berths into the 2020 Masters Tournament and 2020 U.S. Open.
This season, Augenstein averaged 69.95 strokes over 19 rounds across seven college events. He notched a victory at the Desert Mountain Intercollegiate and had two other top five finishes.
Castillo holds down the second position in both the World Amateur Golf Ranking and the Golfweek/Sagarin ranking. He reached the round of 16 at the 2019 U.S. Amateur last summer after tying for second place during the medal portion of the event, and he also was a Western Amateur semifinalist.
In college play, Castillo won two tournaments, claiming the Sea Best Invitational and Florida Gators Invitational back-to-back in the spring. He’s posted a 70.14 scoring average over seven events.
Theegala is the top-ranked college player in both the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and the Golfstat individual rankings. He also sits among the world’s top five in both the WAGR (No. 3) and SPWAR (No. 5).
He was the 2019 Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) champion and advanced to the match play portion of both the U.S. Amateur and Western Amateur.
This season, Theegala won a pair of tournaments, the Southwest Invitational and the Alister MacKenzie Invitational. He had four other top-10 finishes and was among the top 20 in all eight events.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 2:35 PM.
