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2011 Ben Hogan Winner: Peter U.

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Last night, with the sports world transfixed on the Yankees front office soap opera and a pair of NBA series’ about to get nasty, at a Country Club founded in 1936 in Fort Worth, Texas, a bunch of people awkwardly dressed in tuxedos looked on as Peter Uihlein became the second Cowboy in four years to win the Ben Hogan Award.

I agree with what Ryan Herrington tweeted last night “All due respect to [Kevin] Tway and [Patrick] Cantlay, but this was a forgone conclusion.”

Two Ws, four top 5s, a Big 12 POY, a Masters appearance, and the reigning U.S. Amateur champion status tend to make some of the most difficult achievements in sports seem like forgone conclusions, I suppose. Uihlein is the fourth Cowboy to win the Ben Hogan award, a list that includes Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan. He and Kevin Tway became the first teammates to be finalists for the Award in the same year.

There’s work left though as the Cowboy golf team still has the bitter taste of their 2010 NCAA championship loss to Augusta St. lingering. Uihlein, too, has another mountain to climb – one of the few accolades that’s evaded him in his young career: the NCAA individual crown.

That quest starts Thursday when the Pokes tee it up for Regionals at the Colorado National Golf Club in Erie, CO.

After he won last night, Uihlein also noted that he would definitely be back for his senior year (why not?), a sentiment he hasn’t wavered from and I don’t expect to change in the next few months. He’s fallen for OSU, and Stillwater has returned the favor. It’s a special place and it’s good to see someone understand the larger narrative and not just move on to the next best thing.

And as if this syrupy story couldn’t get any better, Uihlein dropped this bomb at the end of the night, “I can truly say that I would not be standing up here if I would have gone anywhere other than Oklahoma State.”

And I can truly say I would not be writing this post if you hadn’t either, so thanks for that.

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