Arizona State’s Josele Ballester (player), Kansas’ Will King (scholar-athlete), along with the Oklahoma State duo of Ethan Fang (newcomer) and Alan Bratton (coach) earned Big 12 Men’s Golf Yearly Awards.
Ballester tied for fourth at the NCAA Championship, helping the Sun Devils to the top seed in match play and a berth in the national quarterfinals. The 2024 U.S. Amateur Champion tied for fifth at the Big 12 Championship, and finished the season with the No. 5 Clippd rankings, which were used to determine all Conference awards except for Coach and Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The Senior from Castellon de la Plana, Spain had six top-10 finishes and averaged 68.2 strokes per round.
Fang captured nine top-10 finishes as he became the first Cowboy since Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra in 2021 to earn Big 12 Newcomer honors. Fang averaged 68.4 strokes per round for the NCAA Champions and saw his season highlighted by a tie for fifth at the Big 12 Championship and a t-15
th finish at the national championship.
King holds a 4.0 GPA in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, while having the highest percentage of counting rounds for a Jayhawk squad that qualified for NCAA Regionals. He captured an individual victory at the Hawkeye Invitational, finishing at -9, while averaging a career-best 71.55 strokes over 29 rounds for the season. The junior is the first KU golfer to win Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.
Bratton was voted Big 12 Coach of the Year for the second time, after leading the Cowboys to their 12
th NCAA title and a 12
th Big 12 title. The Cowboys entered the national postseason as the No. 2-rated team by Clippd before winning the NCAA Urbana Regional and advancing through match play as the No. 4 seed to win the title. Both Scholar-Athlete and Coach of the Year were determined by a coaches’ vote.
In addition, Ballester and Fang led a selection of 10 golfers on the All-Big 12 team. Ballester was joined by a trio of his Sun Devil teammates, Michael Mjaaseth, Preston Summerhays and Connor Williams, while the national champions were represented by Fang, Eric Lee and Big 12 individual champion Preston Stout. Filip Jakubcik (Arizona), Peter Kim (BYU) and Gabriel Palacios (Utah) completed the squad.
Big 12 Golfer of the Year: Josele Ballester, Arizona State
Big 12 Newcomer of the Year: Ethan Fang, Oklahoma State
Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Will King, Kansas
Big 12 Coach of the Year: Alan Bratton, Oklahoma State
All-Big 12 Team
Filip Jakubcik, Arizona
Josele Ballester, Arizona State
Michael Mjaaseth, Arizona State
Preston Summerhays, Arizona State
Connor Williams, Arizona State
Peter Kim, BYU
Ethan Fang, Oklahoma State
Eric Lee, Oklahoma State
Preston Stout, Oklahoma State
Gabriel Palacios, Utah