Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech, fresh off clinching the No. 1 spot in the final PGA Tour University rankings to earn a tour card, led a group of five players on Tuesday chosen to receive the 2023 Jack Nicklaus Award. The senior from Eslov, Sweden, was the winner in NCAA Division I after becoming the all-time leader in career victories at Texas Tech with eight.

The Nicklaus Award recognises the national collegiate player of the year in Division I, II, III, NAIA, and NJCAA as selected by the Golf Coaches Association of America. The five players will receive their awards from Nicklaus on Sunday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Charles DeLong of Grand Valley State (Michigan), Alex Price of Christopher Newport (Virginia), Easton Johnson of The Master’s (California), and Matthis Lefèvre of New Mexico Junior College also were selected.

“If you look at the resumes of these five players, they have consistently excelled at the highest level this season and have proudly represented their schools,” said Nicklaus, founder and host of this week’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

Aberg, who also was named recipient of the 2023 Fred Haskins Award on Tuesday, won four times including his second straight Big 12 Championship and the 2023 NCAA Norman Regional and finished in the top eight in nine tournaments this season. He joined 2016 Nicklaus recipient Jon Rahm, the reigning Masters champion, as only the second player to win the Ben Hogan Award multiple times. Aberg has PGA Tour membership in 2023 and ’24 and will make his pro debut at next week’s RBC Canadian Open.

DeLong was the Division II selection after winning a programme-record seven tournaments and leading Division II in adjusted scoring average (69.70) to earn Ping First-Team All-America honours. A redshirt sophomore from DeWitt, Michigan, DeLong has 13 individual victories, a school record.

In Division III, Price recorded three wins and two runner-up finishes among eight top-fives this season. The senior from Hillsboro, Virginia, finished T-2 at the NCAA Division III National Championship and topped his own single-season school record for lowest scoring average by almost three strokes at 69.96. He became the first player at Christopher Newport to be named All-American four times, including the first team twice.

Johnson won the 2023 NAIA men’s individual national title for his first collegiate victory to cap a season in which he finished in the top 11 in all 11 starts this season and earned Ping First-Team All-American honours. The playoff victory helped the freshman from Kansas City, Missouri, sew up the NAIA Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award.

The top-ranked player in NJCAA Division I, Lefevre, a sophomore from Hossegor, France, won four times and finished no worse than ninth in all 12 tournament starts. He already owns the programme record for career wins and was named a Ping First-Team All-American. He plans to continue his collegiate golf career next season at Texas Christian.

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That’s exactly what Texas Tech senior Hurly Long did on Saturday, shooting a second-round 61 in the Carmel Cup while representing the Red Raiders. His 11-under-par 61, including a 45-footer for birdie on the par-3 17th and an 11-footer for birdie on the par-5 18th hole puts Long above Tom Kite and David Duval atop the Pebble record books.

“It’s very surreal,” Long told PebbleBeach.com. “It’s taken me until now for it to kick in. Pebble Beach is just a special place. I was talking about it with my teammates: Where else in the world would you want to have the course record? Maybe Augusta National? It’s a huge, huge honor.”

Here’s Long’s scorecard from the feat:

Hurly Long's scorecard. What. A. Round. Ties @SFEwingIV for the lowest round in school history. 61. pic.twitter.com/m6ESdyICf8

— Texas Tech Men’s Golf (@TexasTechMGolf) September 2, 2017

Long, who’s originally from Mannheim, Germany but originally started his collegiate career at Oregon, had a bunch of highlights in the historic round, including a hole-out eagle at the sixth hole and 10 birdies to go along with a lone bogey at the iconic par-4 eighth.

And here’s video of Long’s birdie on 18:

Hurly Long with the clutch birdie on #18 for the course record at Pebble Beach. 61 ? pic.twitter.com/pTlqjHbk3e

— Texas Tech Men’s Golf (@TexasTechMGolf) September 2, 2017

Amazingly, his score for three rounds (69-61-67), though a Texas Tech team record, was matched by Oklahoma State’s Hayden Wood, and Long needed to birdie the 18th hole for a second straight day to send the two into a playoff, which Long won on the first hole.

Taking home the individual title only adds to the special weekend at Pebble Beach for Long. Though it’ll be remembered most for the historic 11-under-par round on Saturday. And certainly a moment that Long will remember for the rest of his life.

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