March 1, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Senior Dillon Dougherty (Woodland, Calif./Woodland) is one of 26 collegiate players who has been named to the 2006 Ben Hogan Award Watch List.
Bank of America, in cooperation with Colonial Country Club, The Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA), announced the watch list on Wednesday. The most prestigious award in men's college golf, The Hogan is presented annually to the top men's NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or junior college golfer taking into account all collegiate and amateur competitions during the last 12 months.
Dougherty's most significant accomplishment came last August when he finished as the U.S. Amateur runner-up, thus earning an invitation to the 2006 Masters. Dougherty also turned in fourth-place finishes at the William Tucker Invitational and CordeValle Collegiate events last fall.
Returning PING First-Team All-America selections Ryan Blaum of Duke, Arizona State's Alejandro Cañizares, Roberto Castro of Georgia Tech, East Tennessee State's Rhys Davies, Matt Every of Florida, Oklahoma's Anthony Kim, James Lepp of Washington and Oklahoma State's Pablo Martin highlight the list. Others on the 26-player watch list include Scott Brown and Dane Burkhart -- defending NCAA Division II national champion -- of South Carolina-Aiken, Jay Choi of New Mexico, Texas Tech's Oscar Floren, Erik Flores of UCLA, UNLV's Andres Gonzales, Jake Grodzinsky of Duke, Stanford's Rob Grube, Brian Harman -- the nation's top-ranked amateur -- and Chris Kirk of Georgia, Coastal Carolina's Dustin Johnson, Kevin Larsen of Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt's Luke List, U.S. Public Links champion Clay Ogden of BYU, Kyle Reifers and Webb Simpson of Wake Forest and North Carolina's Martin Ureta.
The Hogan Award selection committee will announce 10 semifinalists on March 29 and name three finalists on May 2. The three finalists will attend The Hogan Award banquet on Saturday, May 13 at Colonial Country Club -- the Saturday prior to the Bank of America Colonial -- with the recipient announced that evening.