February 28, 2008–The UNLV Men's Golf Program is currently ranked 22nd in the Golweek rankings, and are readying for the Southern Highlands Collegiate event, their home tournament to be played at the exclusive Southern Highlands Golf Club. And now, one of the star players on the Rebels, Seung-Su Han, ranked 47th, has been named as one of only 24 players in the country to be in the running for the highest honor in college golf, the Hogan Award that goes to the nation's top player. It is the second-straight year that the junior has been included on The Ben Hogan Award watch list, which was announced in Norman, Okla., by Chesepeake Energy, in association with Colonial Country Club, The Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA).
Returning PING First-Team All-America selections Billy Horschel of Florida, Southern California's Jamie Lovemark and Kyle Stanley of Clemson, British Amateur champion Drew Weaver of Virginia Tech and Walker Cup participants Rickie Fowler of Oklahoma State and Wake Forest's Webb Simpson highlight the list.
Several of the players on the list will be competing in the UNLV event, to be played March 7-9. The top individuals scheduled to play are Rickie Fowler, OSU (1), Kevin Chappell, UCLA (3), Chesson Hadley, Georgia Tech (4), Harris English, Georgia (5), Jamie Lovemark, USC (6), and Russell Henley, Georgia (10).
Others on the 24-player watch list include Florida State's Jonas Blixt, Ryan Brehm of Michigan State, UCLA's Kevin Chappell and Lucas Lee, Jonas Enander Hedin and Stefan Wiedergruen of Charlotte, Georgia's Harris English and Brian Harman, Derek Fathauer of Louisville, Stanford's Rob Grube, Chesson Hadley and Cameron Tringale of Georgia Tech, UNLV's Han, Mark Harrell and Michael Thompson of Alabama, Minnesota's Clayton Rask, Joel Sjoholm of Georgia State and Sonoma State's Jarin Todd.
The Hogan Award semifinalists will be announced April 16. Three finalists named on May 7 will be invited to Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, for the Hogan Award presentation on the evening of May 18. The 1964 U.S. Open winner and former CBS golf analyst Ken Venturi will be the keynote speaker.
Han also was named to the watch list for the 2007 award. Former UNLV golfer Ryan Moore was the 2005 Hogan Award winner, which marked the first time a UNLV golfer was named the national player of the year. In 2006, UNLV's Andres Gonzales was a semifinalist for the award.