Florida State University Athletics
John Pak Selected as Ben Hogan Award Finalist
5/13/2021 12:26:18 PM | Men's Golf
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Seminoles.com) – The prestige of Florida State senior men’s golfer John Pak continues to grow. The native of Scotch Plains, N.J., is one of the few still in the running for one of collegiate golf’s most coveted awards, being selected as a Ben Hogan Award finalist as announced on Thursday by The Hogan Trophy Award Foundation, Friends of Golf (FOG) and Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA).
The winner of the award will be announced on Friday, June 4, at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. Pak joins Pierceson Coody of Texas and Davis Thompson of Georgia as finalists. The 2021 recipient will earn the first invitation into the PGA TOUR’s 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge.
Pak is ranked as the nation’s top collegiate golfer according to Golfstat. From wire-to-wire, he has led in the PGA TOUR University rankings that began last summer and conclude following the NCAA Division I Championship. The top five in those rankings earn a direct path to the Korn Ferry Tour.
The recent Walker Cup participant has guided the Seminoles to one of their best seasons in program history, earning a Top seed at their home NCAA Regional which takes place May 17-19 at Seminole Legacy Golf Club. Pak’s 69.83 scoring average this season is the fourth-lowest in program history, with the Top 2 marks also being held by him (69.40 in 2020; 69.56 in 2019).
He earned a historic win this spring at The Calusa Cup on April 5-6, giving him eight career wins at FSU to tie Seminole legend Nolan Henke’s program record. A victory at next week’s NCAA Regional would put Pak in a stratosphere all by himself at FSU.
The Ben Hogan Award first was presented in 1990. Pak is looking to become the first Seminole ever to win and the fifth ACC representative, with the last being Kyle Stanley of Clemson in 2009.
The Ben Hogan Trophy was first issued by FOG in 1990 at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles and also included academic achievement in its original list of standards. In 2002, the award moved to Hogan’s hometown and the site of five of his PGA TOUR victories and began recognizing the top amateur and collegiate golfer. Since that time, The Ben Hogan Award winners have combined to accumulate 44 PGA TOUR victories and more than $265 million in prize money on the tour.
Three winners are currently ranked in the top 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings—Jon Rahm (No. 3), Viktor Hovland (No. 11) and Patrick Cantlay (No. 13). Other recipients include: Ricky Barnes, Matt Every, Rickie Fowler, Doug Ghim, Bill Haas, Chris Kirk, Hunter Mahan, Maverick McNealy, Ryan Moore, Patrick Rodgers, Kyle Stanley, Nick Taylor, Sahith Theegala, D.J. Trahan, Peter Uihlein and Chris Williams.
In addition, finalists attending the ceremony over the past decade include some of the game’s biggest stars, including three players currently ranked among the world’s top 30—No. 6 Collin Morikawa, No. 27 Matthew Wolff and No. 28 Jordan Spieth.
Since 2002, the Hogan Trophy Award Foundation has awarded over $825,000 in scholarships to more than 30 universities. For more information on the Ben Hogan Award, visit TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
