Texas A&M junior golfer Chandler Phillips was among five elite golfers who were selected as finalist for the 2018 Division I Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Barbasol.
Joining Phillips as finalists were Shintaro Ban of UNLV, Doug Ghim of Texas, Justin Suh of Southern California and Oregon’s Norman Xiong. The winner will be announced May 31. 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.
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 16-22, at the Champions at Keene Trace in Lexington, Ky. The Barbasol Shootout will be held Saturday, June 2 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 Huntsville, Texas, native, Phillips has won four events this year. An All-SEC selection, he brought a 70.36 stroke average into the NCAA Championship and is on pace to break his own school record set last season. Phillips has posted 27 rounds of par or better in his 36 rounds of competition. In addition to his four wins, he has four other top 10s and only placed outside the top 20 once in 12 events his junior campaign.
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.
