With just the NCAA Championship on tap, a freshman appears to be the slight favorite to win this year’s Haskins Award presented by Stifel.
Auburn freshman Jackson Koivun leads all of Division I this season with seven top-3 finishes, including two wins. He’s also finished in the top 5 in nine straight tournaments entering nationals at Omni La Costa.
Koivun is joined on the Haskins Award’s final watch list by six seniors, including North Carolina’s Austin Greaser, who moved into consideration with a big win at the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional; Georgia Tech’s Christo Lamprecht, a two-time winner this season for the Yellow Jackets; and Stanford’s Michael Thorbjorsen, who has a slight edge of Lamprecht in the PGA Tour University race despite missing the entire fall with a stress fracture in his back and minor ankle surgery.
Florida State’s Luke Clanton and ETSU’s Mats Ege have the most victories among the 10 finalists with three apiece while UNF’s Nick Gabrelcik has won twice.
Auburn, with Koivun and Brendan Valdes, and Vanderbilt, with Gordon Sargent and Matthew Riedel, are the only programs represented on the watch list by more than one player.
The Haskins Award is one of three national college player of the year awards but the only one voted on by current players and coaches, select members of the media, school SIDs and past Haskins winners. Last year’s winner was Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech.
The last freshman to win the Haskins was Alabama’s Justin Thomas in 2012.
Voting for the award begins Friday and runs through the end of the stroke play at the NCAA Championship.
Here are the 10 names on the final watch list:
Luke Clanton, Soph., Florida State
Mats Ege, Sr., East Tennessee State
Nick Gabrelcik, Sr., North Florida
Austin Greaser, Sr., North Carolina
Jackson Koivun, Fr., Auburn
Christo Lamprecht, Sr., Georgia Tech
Matthew Riedel, Sr., Vanderbilt
Gordon Sargent, Jr., Vanderbilt
Michael Thorbjornsen, Sr., Stanford
Brendan Valdes, Jr., Auburn