Arizona State’s Jon Rahm
Arizona State’s Jon Rahm (Tracy Wilcox)
Former Arizona State golfer Jon Rahm was announced Thursday as the winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award.
Rahm, a Spaniard, who also won the Ben Hogan Award two weeks ago and is one of the favorites to capture the Haskins Award presented by Stifel next week, was the Division I recipient of the Nicklaus Award, which honors national players of the year in college golf. Other winners, by division, were John Coultas (Florida Southern, Division II), Addison Lambeth (Huntingdon, Division III), Peter French (Johnson and Wales, NAIA) and Kerry Sweeney (Eastern Florida State, NJCAA).
On Saturday, Rahm and the other four recipients competed in the Barbasol Shootout at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. The winning prize: a spot in the 2016 Barbasol Championship, which is to be played July 14-17 in Opelika, Ala.
Despite a short weather delay, Rahm shot 2-under 68 to finish five shots ahead of second-place Lambeth and pick up the exemption. Rahm also received a spot in next year’s Memorial Tournament for being the Division I winner of the Nicklaus Award.
On Sunday, all six Nicklaus Award winners will be recognized by Nicklaus at Muirfield Village, site of this week’s Memorial Tournament.