Five finalists have been named for the 2017 Division I Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Barbasol. Sam Burns of LSU; Oregon’s Wyndham Clark; Patrick Martin of Vanderbilt; Stanford’s Maverick McNealy; and Wake Forest’s Will Zalatoris are finalists for the award. The winner will be announced June 1. The Award presentation will be held at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, and presented by award namesake Jack Nicklaus during the final round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide on Sunday.
In addition to receiving the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award, the five recipients will compete in the Barbasol Shootout for an exemption into the PGA TOUR’s Barbasol Championship, held July 20-23, at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Grand National in Opelika, Ala. The Barbasol Shootout will be held Saturday, June 3, at the storied Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio–the same club where Jack Nicklaus first learned the game of golf as a young boy.
A sophomore from Shreveport, La., Burns has four victories this season, including the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional. He has two additional runner-up finishes and has not placed lower than ninth in 14 events. The SEC Player of the Year, Burns leads LSU with a 69.77 scoring average. He was previously named to represent the United States in the Arnold Palmer Cup.
The Pac-12 Golfer of the Year, Clark claimed three wins his senior season, including the conference championship. The Denver native posted four runner-up finishes and only placed outside the top 10 once in 12 tournaments. Clark has a stroke average of 69.59 and has shot in the 60s in 18 of 34 rounds.
Martin won the Schenkel Invitational his sophomore season. A native of Birmingham, Ala., Martin was runner-up at the SEC Men’s Golf Championship after falling in a playoff, one of six total top 10 finishes in 11 events. He finished no worse than 21st all year. Martin leads the team in stroke average with a 69.87.
The 2015 Nicklaus Award recipient, McNealy won the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational. The senior from Portola Valley, Calif., has five additional top-five finishes. McNealy only placed outside the top 18 once in 10 events. He was previously announced to represent the United States in the Arnold Palmer Cup and was named recipient of the Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan awards.
A junior from Plano, Tex., Zalatoris won the General Hackler Championship. The ACC Player of the Year, Zalatoris’ 70.00 scoring average is the second lowest in program history. In 11 events this season, Zalatoris has nine top-10 finishes, including three runner-up showings.
Nicklaus, a Big Ten and NCAA Champion at The Ohio State University, helped inspire and create the Jack Nicklaus Award in 1988 and it is now presented to the National Player of the year in NCAA Divisions I, II and III, as well as NAIA and NJCAA.
Jon Rahm, out of Arizona State, received the Division I Nicklaus Award last year, along with an exemption to play in the 2017 Memorial Tournament. Rahm is currently No. 4 in the FedExCup and No. 9 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He won his maiden PGA TOUR victory at the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open. He then went on to finish in the top-five in three of his next four events, including a runner-up at the World Golf Championship-Dell Technologies Match Play, where he lost to Dustin Johnson in the final.
The award, created in 1988, is given annually to the national players-of-the-year at each level of collegiate golf. Winners of the Nicklaus Award include Tiger Woods (1996), Phil Mickelson (1990-92), David Duval (1993), Justin Leonard (1994), Stewart Cink (1995), Luke Donald (1999), Hunter Mahan (2003), Bill Haas (2004), Ryan Moore (2005), Justin Thomas (2012), and Rahm (2016), among many others.
