FORT WORTH, Texas (May 19, 2025) – Florida State junior Luke Clanton, the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Ben Hogan Award presented by Baird. He is the second Seminole ever to win the honor, joining John Pak (2021).
The Ben Hogan Award annually honors the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer based on all collegiate, amateur and professional events over the previous 12 months. The joint announcement was made by the Hogan Trophy Award Foundation, the Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA).
In addition to his top ranking in WAGR, he is ranked 106th in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) among all professionals and amateurs, and is third in the Scoreboard Powered by Clippd College Rankings. Earlier this spring, Clanton became the second golfer ever to earn his PGA TOUR card through PGA TOUR University’s Accelerated Program.
The junior had two runner-up finishes at PGA TOUR events in 2024, the John Deere Classic and The RSM Classic. Clanton became the first amateur since Jack Nicklaus in 1961 to record at least three top-10 finishes as an amateur in the same year. He took fifth at the 2024 Wyndham Championship and tied for 10th at the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic. In all, he has made 10 PGA TOUR cuts in 13 starts. Additionally, Clanton tied for 41st place at the 2024 U.S. Open and reached the round of 32 at the U.S. Amateur.
The product of Hialeah, Fla., has four college wins to his credit this season, including a four-shot win last week at the NCAA Tallahassee Regional. His other individual titles came at the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial, Seminole Intercollegiate and the Watersound Invitational. He also shared runner-up honors at the 2024 NCAA Championships.
The announcement was made at a black-tie dinner at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, attended by the three finalists: Clanton, North Carolina’s David Ford and Auburn’s Jackson Koivun.
The Ben Hogan Award has honored the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer at Colonial Country Club since 2002. Prior to its move to Fort Worth, the original Ben Hogan Trophy was issued by Friends of Golf at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif., beginning in 1990. An esteemed international selection committee, comprised of 30 leaders in collegiate, amateur and professional golf, votes during each stage of the process.
Since 2002, the Hogan Trophy Award Foundation has donated more than $1.2 million to charitable endeavors, providing scholarship grants to colleges as well as gifts to golf programs and organizations in need. This year’s beneficiaries included Montreat College, an NAIA school in North Carolina whose golf training facility was destroyed due to flooding from Hurricane Helene, and the Southern California PGA Foundation, a charitable organization that helps youth golfers in Southern California, which was devastated by wildfires in January.
Over the years, recipients of the Ben Hogan Award have combined to accumulate 70 PGA TOUR wins and amass more than $465 million in prize money on the tour. Past recipients are Ludvig Aberg (‘22, ‘23), Ricky Barnes (‘03), Patrick Cantlay (‘12), Matt Every (‘06), Rickie Fowler (‘08), Doug Ghim (‘18), Bill Haas (‘04), Viktor Hovland (‘19), Chris Kirk (‘07), Jackson Koivun (’24), Hunter Mahan (‘03), Maverick McNealy (‘17), Ryan Moore (‘05), John Pak (‘21), Jon Rahm (‘15, ‘16), Patrick Rodgers (‘14), Kyle Stanley (‘09), Nick Taylor (‘10), Sahith Theegala (‘20), D.J. Trahan (‘02), Peter Uihlein (‘11) and Chris Williams (‘13).
For more information on the Ben Hogan Award presented by Baird, visit TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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