Oklahoma golf: Two Sooners on Ben Hogan Award watch list
By Chip Rouse
A pair of seniors on the men’s Oklahoma golf team are candidates for the 2020 Ben Hogan Award.
Quade Cummins and Grant Reband are among 31 golfers from all levels of collegiate golf who are on the watch list for the 2020 Ben Hogan Award, one of the highest individual honors to be bestowed upon a college golfer.
Cummins, a redshirt senior from Weatherford, Oklahoma, has a scoring average of 71.35 over his four seasons at OU. His senior year of eligibility has been his best so far.
In four fall events, he has an average score of 68.83, including his best 18-hole round and tournament finish, shooting a 62 at the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic, won by Oklahoma Cummins finished second in that tournament. He currently ranks seventh in the Arnold Palmer Cup standings and is a two-time Big 12 Golfer of the Month.
Reband averaged 68.92 during OU’s five-event fall schedule and finished in the top 10 in all five. He began the 2020 spring season the same way he ended in the fall, leading the Sooners to a second-place finish in the Puerto Rico Classic. Reband tied for first with a nine-under-par, 54-hole score of 207.
Reband ranked 9th in the latest Palmer Cup rankings.
The Ben Hogan Award watch list includes seven golfers out of the Big 12: Two from Texas and one each from Oklahoma State, Baylor and Texas Tech.
The past two winners of the award have been from the Big 12: Doug Ghim, from Texas, won it in 2018, and Oklahoma State golfer Viktor Hovland was the 2019 winner.
The Hogan Award is conferred annually and presented to the top men’s golfer in NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA. Criteria for the award include all collegiate and amateur competitions over a 12-month period from May one year to June the next. The selection committee is made up of leaders from college, amateur and professional golf.