July 29, 2025 • by Scoreboard
A round-up of the DI men's award winners from the 2024/25 season. Congratulations to all those listed below on a fine season.
North Carolina Senior David Ford won the 2025 Fred Haskins Award presented by Stifel, recognizing the most outstanding male NCAA Division I college golfer for the 2024-25 season.
Ford, the No. 1 ranked collegiate player, the No. 3 ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, and No. 1 in PGA Tour U standings, received a great number of votes to win the 2025 Haskins Award, but just enough to outnumber Florida State’s Luke Clanton. This year’s vote was the closest race in the last 20 years for the Haskins Award.
Ford recorded five victories with three consecutive wins finishing out the regular season, including the Valspar Intercollegiate Invitational, Augusta Haskins Award Invitational, and the Tar Heel Intercollegiate. He broke five UNC men’s golf records in a single season which include wins (5), stroke average (68.78), score to par (-89), average score to par per round (-2.47), and rounds in the 60s (25).
Ford was also named to the 2025 Ping Men’s Golf All-East Region Team, becoming the first in Tar Heel history to make All-Region team in each of his four seasons.
Ford is the first Tar Heel golfer to receive the Nicklaus Award. The senior from Peachtree Corners, Ga., won a national-best and school-record five tournaments, including a program-first three straight between March 25 and April 13, and tallied four other top-10 finishes this season.
He went 3-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship match play and was the ACC Men’s Golfer of the Month in October, March, and April.
Ranked No. 1 via Scoreboard powered by Clippd, Ford’s school-record 68.78 scoring average led the nation. Ford also broke single-season program records for strokes below par (89), score to par per round (-2.47), and rounds in the 60s (25).
Daniel Bennett of Texas won the 2025 NCAA Division I Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award presented by StrackaLine.
Leading the Longhorns with a 70.00 scoring average, Bennett compiled five top-10 finishes, including four inside the top three, in his first season in Austin. The Pretoria, South Africa, native began his collegiate career with a T3 at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational and as a runner-up at the Southwestern Invitational.
He was also a runner-up at the Valspar Collegiate Invitational and was Texas’ top finisher in four of their five 2024-25 team victories. A PING First-Team All-American with 15 rounds in the 60s, Bennett was selected to compete for Team International in the 2025 Arnold Palmer Cup.
The purpose of the Byron Nelson Award is to select the outstanding Division I, II, III, or NAIA scholar-athlete of the year. The recipient, a graduating senior, is recognized for their achievement in the classroom, on the course, and in their community.
Currently ninth in the PGA TOUR University Ranking and 15th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Jackson Buchanan has improved his season scoring average each year at Illinois. In October, the Dacula, Georgia native won the Fallen Oak Collegiate for his fourth collegiate victory.
Graduating with a 3.63 GPA in Business: Operations Management, Buchanan has served at the Eastern Illinois Foodbank all four years he’s been in Champaign and loaded boxes of food items that are delivered to the local Bloomington, Illinois community through the Tinervin Family Foundation. He has also provided under-privileged neighbors with access to meals, hygiene, and household items through The Block and taken part in Illinois’ Campus Walk for Suicide Awareness.
"I am so proud of everything that Jackson has accomplished during his time at the University of Illinois, and for him to be honored as the recipient of the Byron Nelson Award is so incredibly special,” said Illinois Head Coach Mike Small. “Jackson's high-level success at all areas of the student-athlete experience are a true representation of both this award, and of Byron Nelson's legacy."
Arizona State's Josele Ballester compiled five top-five finishes with a win at the Fighting Illini Invitational and a 70.52 scoring average while earning 2025 Big 12 Golfer of the Year and PING First Team All-American honors.
The senior from Castellón de la Plana, Spain, concluded his collegiate career as a four-time PING All-American while finishing the season ranked fifth via Scoreboard powered by Clippd. Ballester won the 2024 US Amateur, becoming the first golfer from Spain to win the title.
Bratton led second-ranked and his alma mater Oklahoma State to seven wins, including their last five tournaments, and five other top-three finishes in the season. While winning the program’s 12th national championship and 12th Big 12 Championship, the Cowboys were led on the course by PING All-Central Region honorees Ethan Fang, Gaven Lane, Eric Lee, and Preston Stout.
Fang and Stout were named PING First Team All-Americans and Arnold Palmer Cup selections. Bratton was the Division I Dave Williams National Coach of the Year when he last led the Cowboys to the national championship in 2018.
Josele Ballester (Arizona State), Daniel Bennett (Texas), Luke Clanton (Florida State), Ethan Fang (Oklahoma State), David Ford (North Carolina), Ben James (Virginia), Jackson Koivun (Auburn), Michael La Sasso (Ole Miss), Preston Stout (Oklahoma State), Brendan Valdes (Auburn)
Josiah Gilbert (Auburn), Ian Gilligan (Florida), Algot Kleen (LSU), Christiaan Maas (Texas), Phichaksn Maichon (Texas A&M), Jacob Modleski (Notre Dame), Tommy Morrison (Texas), Sebastian Moss (Louisville), Jase Summy (Oklahoma), Jackson Van Paris (Vanderbilt)
Carson Bacha (Auburn), Buck Brumlow (Georgia), Mahanth Chirravuri (Pepperdine), Pablo Ereño (UCLA), Caden Fioroni (UNLV), Drew Goodman (Oklahoma), Gunnlaugur Árni Sveinsson (LSU), Jack Turner (Florida), Kieron van Wyk (College of Charleston), Connor Williams (Arizona State)
Supapon Amornchaichan (Purdue), Jackson Buchanan (Illinois), Paul Chang (Virginia), Ryder Cowan (Oklahoma), Riccardo Fantinelli (Princeton), Charlie Forster (Long Beach State), Justin Hastings (San Diego State), Max Herendeen (Illinois), Dane Huddleston (Utah Valley), Filip Jakubcik (Arizona), Matthew Kress (Florida), Eric Lee (Oklahoma State), Marshall Meisel (Wake Forest), Michael Mjaaseth (Arizona State), Omar Morales (UCLA), Gabriel Palacios (Utah), Jake Peacock (USF), Luke Poulter (Florida), Brantley Scott (Troy), Lance Simpson (Tennessee), Preston Summerhays (Arizona State), Hiroshi Tai (Georgia Tech), Hunter Thomson (Michigan), Clark Van Gaalen (Oklahoma), Braxton Watts (Utah), Tyler Weaver (Florida State), Wells Williams (Vanderbilt)
Daniel Bennett (Texas), Wheaton Ennis (Texas A&M), Connor Graham (Texas Tech), Gunnlaugur Árni Sveinsson (LSU), Clark Van Gaalen (Oklahoma)