Chattanooga Mocs senior Stephan Jaeger (Munich, Germany) is one of 28 collegiate golfers named to the 2012 Ben Hogan Award Watch List. The Ben Hogan Award is presented annually to the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer taking into account all collegiate and amateur competitions during the past 12-month period.

Jaeger is joined on the 2012 The Ben Hogan Award Watch List by Blayne Barber (Auburn, Jr.), Zac Blair (BYU, Jr.), Julien Brun (TCU, Fr.), Patrick Cantlay (UCLA, So.), Sean Dale (North Florida, Jr.), Derek Ernst (UNLV, Sr.), Dylan Frittelli (Texas, Sr.), Luke Guthrie (Illinois, Sr.), Brooks Koepka (Florida State, Sr.), Jace Long (Missouri, Jr.), Bryden Macpherson (Georgia, Jr.), Daniel Miernicki (Oregon, Sr.), Corbin Mills (Clemson, Jr.), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington, Fr.), Thomas Pieters (Illinois, So.), Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, Fr.), Kyle Souza (Chico State, Sr.), Jordan Spieth (Texas, Fr.), Justin Thomas (Alabama, Fr.), Ethan Tracy (Arkansas, Sr.), Harold Varner (East Carolina, Sr.), T.J. Vogel (Florida, Jr.), James White (Georgia Tech, Sr.), Cory Whitsett (Alabama, So.), Chris Williams (Washington, Jr.), Eugene Wong (Oregon, Sr.) and Andrew Yun (Stanford, Jr.).

“It is the culmination of all the hard work during his career at UTC,” said head coach Mark Guhne. “It has been special watching him develop both on and off the golf course. It is great for Stephan and our program.”

Jaeger is the first Chattanooga golfer to earn mention for this honor. He is ranked No. 8 in the nation on the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index and is 14-under par through five events this season

A two-time collegiate winner, Jaeger is the Mocs career scoring leader by nearly a stroke. He is the two-time Southern Conference Player of the Year (2010, 2011) and was named Freshman of the Year in 2009. He was recently honored as UTC’s male Dayle May Award winner, given to the senior student-athlete with the highest cumulative G.P.A., and led the squad’s community service effort with the City of Chattanooga’s Parks and Recreation Therapeutic Recreation Services C.H.I.P.S. program.

A list of 10 semifinalists will be unveiled on Wednesday, April 11, and then will be pared down to three finalists on Thursday, May 10. The winner will be crowned at a banquet at Colonial Country Club on Monday, May 21, prior to the start of the PGA TOUR’s Crowne Plaza Invitational.
 
The award, which was first issued in 1990 and also included academic achievement in its original list of standards, revised its criteria for the 2001-02 collegiate season to its current standard of honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer.
 
Since that time, the winners have been: D.J. Trahan (Clemson, 2002), Ricky Barnes (Arizona, 2003), Hunter Mahan (Oklahoma State, 2003), Bill Haas (Wake Forest, 2004), Ryan Moore (UNLV, 2005), Matt Every (Florida, 2006), Chris Kirk (Georgia, 2007), Rickie Fowler (Oklahoma State, 2008), Kyle Stanley (Clemson, 2009), Nick Taylor (Washington, 2010) and Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State, 2011).
 
To find the latest information on The Ben Hogan Award, its candidates and its previous winners, visit www.Facebook.com/BenHoganAward and @BenHoganAward on Twitter. For an exclusive video of the Watch List announcement, visit http://golfweek.com/videos/2012/feb/08/1208/.