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Wright Named Semifinalist for Nicklaus Award

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Wright Named Semifinalist for Nicklaus Award

BATON ROUGE – LSU’s senior All-American Zach Wright will tee off in NCAA postseason play among the Top 10 players in the country, and he was rewarded by the Golf Coaches Association of America on Thursday as one of the 30 semifinalists for the 2016 NCAA Division I Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Barbasol.

Finalists for the award will be named May 25 in the days leading up to the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships. Jack Nicklaus himself will present the award to the winner on June 2 during the final round for The Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Wright, who is currently playing at the PGA TOUR’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans this weekend, is the No. 10-ranked collegiate player nationally in the latest Golfstat power rankings released on Tuesday.

Wright has performed like a true National Player of the Year candidate throughout the 2016 spring season while winning three tournament titles in his six starts since February. Wright opened the spring by leading the Tigers to the team title at The Prestige at PGA West while being crowned the individual champion with a career-low tournament score of 12-under par 201. He then won individual titles at each of the Valspar Collegiate Invitational with a winning score of 2-under 211 and tying for the top spot at the Tiger Classic in recent weeks.

A senior from Phoenix, Arizona, Wright recently tied for 18th place in his final SEC Championships as an LSU Tiger while finishing the event with a team-leading 71.38 scoring average in his 11 tournament starts during his final season in Baton Rouge. He leads the Tigers with six top-five, seven top-10 and 10 top-20 finishes in those 11 appearances in 2015-16.

That performance earned Wright a spot on the United States team that will compete at the 2016 Arnold Palmer Cup at Formby Golf Club in Merseyside, England, later this summer. He earned an automatic selection on Team USA in the Ryder-Cup-style collegiate event with his top-six ranking at No. 3 in the final Arnold Palmer Cup Ranking released by the GCAA two weeks ago.

NCAA Division I Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award Semifinalists
Derek Bard, Virginia
Charlie Danielson, Illinois
Thomas Detry, Illinois
Doug Ghim, Texas
Will Gordon, Vanderbilt
Gavin Hall, Texas
Rico Hoey, Southern California
Sam Horsfield, Florida
Beau Hossler, Texas
Austin James, Charleston Southern
Michael Johnson, Auburn
Chase Koepka, South Florida
Hank Lebioda, Florida State
KK Limbhasut, California
Lee McCoy, Georgia
Maverick McNealy, Stanford
Nahum Mendoza III, San Diego State
Adrian Meronk, East Tennessee State
Matt NeSmith, South Carolina
Aksel Olsen, South Florida
Corey Pereira, Washington
Jon Rahm, Arizona State
Matthias Schwab, Vanderbilt
Robin Sciot-Siegrist, Louisville
Robby Shelton, Alabama
Greyson Sigg, Georgia
Lars van Meijel, Memphis
Aaron Wise, Oregon
Zach Wright, LSU
Will Zalatoris, Wake Forest