North Carolina State’s Albin Choi won his home event, the Wolfpack Spring Open, for his fifth victory of the season. Choi entered the event at No. 9 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings.

He finished at 7-under 137 (71-66), including a birdie at No. 18, to finish one shot better than Duke’s Brinson Paolini. Paolini and Clemson’s Miller Capps started the day as co-leaders after shooting first-round 67s. Capps shot 73 Sunday to finish third at 4-under 140.

Paolini and Choi played in Sunday’s final group. Paolini holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole before Choi made a 10-foot birdie putt for the outright lead. Choi has also won the Tar Heel Intercollegiate, Warrior Wave Intercollegiate, Puerto Rico Classic and USF Invitational. He’s finished outside the top 6 in just one of his 11 starts this season.

Duke finished at 1-under 575 (286-289) to win by two shots over host North Carolina State, which shot a final-round 288. Duke is No. 10 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings.

Alabama won its second consecutive SEC Championship on Sunday at Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course in St. Simons Island, Ga. The Crimson Tide shot a final-round 290 to finish at 8-over 848, two shots better than South Carolina.

Alabama, No. 2 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings, has won its past four starts, and five of its six spring events; the only exception was the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters, where the Tide finished second to top-ranked Cal.

No. 33 South Carolina started the SEC Championship’s final round with a three-shot lead over the Tide, but shot 15-over 295 to finish second.

Arkansas’ Sebastian Cappelen, No. 45 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings, won medalist honors with an 8-under 202 total. His bogey-free 66 Sunday was the low score of the day by three strokes, and one of only two rounds in the 60s. Cappelen, who was bogey-free over the final two rounds and made just two bogeys in 54 holes, finished three shots ahead of South Carolina’s Caleb Sturgeon, who started the final round with a four-shot lead but shot a final-round 73 to finish at 205.

Alabama’s Cory Whitsett and Florida’s Tyler McCumber tied ...

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College golf is a team game in an individual sport. That's why individual honors, such as the Haskins Award, are so important. An NCAA Championship is everyone's goal, but most college players have one eye on professional golf, as well.

Winning the Haskins Award puts players on the same list as stars such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Justin Leonard, David Duval, Stewart Cink, Jay Haas, Luke Donald, Matt Kuchar, Graeme McDowell and Hunter Mahan.

The Haskins Watch List takes a look at some of the favorites for this season's award. This year's race seems to be especially wide open. It's important to note that players not on the list are not excluded from consideration. Anyone can jump into contention with a win or two this spring. The Haskins Award is voted on by players, coaches and media.

The picture will get clearer as the spring continues, but here's an early look at some of the favorites:

• • •

1. Michael Kim, Cal sophomore

• Golfweek/Sagarin College Ranking: 1

• Golfstat Cup: 1

• Last Haskins List rank: 1

• Events: 11

• Wins: Isleworth Collegiate Invitational; Arizona Intercollegiate; Fresno State Lexus Golf Classic; Southern Highlands ...

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The 10 semifinalists for The Ben Hogan Award have been announced. The Ben Hogan Award is presented annually to the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III or NJCAA college golfer taking into account college and amateur events over a 12-month period.

The 10 players are:

• Julien Brun (TCU, So.)

• Albin Choi (NC State, Jr.)

• Sean Dale (North Florida, Sr.)

• Michael Kim (California, So.)

• Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington, So.)

• Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, So.)

• Brandon Stone (Texas, Fr.),

• Justin Thomas (Alabama, So.)

• Chris Williams (Washington, Sr.)

• Bobby Wyatt (Alabama, Jr.).

The 10 players will be pared down to three finalists on May 8.

The winner will be named at the Colonial Country Club on May 20 prior to the start of the PGA Tour’s Crowne Plaza Invitational.

Robby Shelton, the No. 1 player in the Golfweek/Sagarin Junior Rankings, has chosen a college. Unlike most of the nation's top juniors, Shelton, who attends St. Paul's Episcopal School in Mobile, Ala., waited until the late signing period to make his selection official. He's headed to Alabama after signing a national letter of intent Thursday.

Shelton is No. 1 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Junior Ranking and AJGA Polo Golf Rankings and a Rolex Junior All-American. He won the 2012 Junior PGA Championship and Junior Players Championship, and was member of the United States' Junior Ryder Cup team.

"Robby is the best player in the country, and we are very excited to have him as part of our program," Alabama head coach Jay Seawell said. "The heart of our recruiting is the state of Alabama, and we are even more excited that he is a product of St. Paul's and the Mobile area."

Shelton was the runner-up at the 2013 Terra Cotta Invitational, the 2012 AJGA Polo Junior Golf Classic (73-69–142) and tied for second at the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley.

Alabama previously signed Ireland's Gavin Moynihan, the 2012 Irish Amateur champion. Moynihan ...

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – For a while, Washington had a reputation for coming out of nowhere to perform well in the postseason. Head coach Matt Thurmond says that period is over, and the rankings now show that Washington will not enter the Pac-12 Championship at Los Angeles Country Club on April 29 as an outlier team.

“We can’t pull out a miracle when we’re ranked third or fourth or fifth,” Thurmond said. His Huskie squad is ranked No. 7 by Golfweek after the end of the regular season.

Washington’s recent postseason achievements have been plentiful. The Huskies have made it to match play three of the past four years, won the Pac-10 Championship in 2009 and 2010 and won their NCAA Regional in 2010 and 2012. Part of the reason for that success is ample preparation.

Thurmond doesn’t buy into the theory of treating postseason tournaments like any other tournament. Everything his team does in the regular season, especially toward the end of the spring, is in preparation for the Pac-12 tournament and anything that follows. That can mean working on a swing position or a mental approach for a player that won’t necessarily benefit him ...

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Welcome to Golfweek’s Men's Midweek Report. We wanted to use this hump day to update you on all the latest men's college news and give you a quick glance at what to look ahead to this weekend:

• • •

THE BIG 5

Stories you need to know now . . .

TEAMS

1. Cal: The No. 1 Golden Bears won the Western Intercollegiate for their ninth title in 11 starts this season. The Bears did it with quite a comeback at Pasatiempo, turning a nine-shot deficit entering the final round into a 13-shot victory. Both Max Homa and Michael Kim finished second in the event. Cal’s final-round 340 was the day’s best round by 17 shots. The Bears won without Michael Weaver, who was competing in the Masters.

2. Texas: The Longhorns picked up their second consecutive win by claiming their own Morris Williams Intercollegiate. Texas, No. 3 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings, began the final round tied with No. 4 New Mexico and No. 6 TCU. What did the Longhorns do? Shoot the low round of the final day, a 2-under 286, to win by five. The Longhorns were six shots better than TCU and 12 shots better ...

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Conference play has begun, and we will be monitoring championships around the country here. Check back daily for news, results and photos as college postseason gets under way.

• Click here for Blog U. and men's college news.

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• • •

West Coast Conference

Gold Mountain GC, Bremerton, Wash., April 15-17: St. Mary's, No. 23 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings, successfully defended its West Coast Conference title Wednesday. The Gaels shot a final-round 292 to finish at 8-over 872, two shots better than No. 61 San Francisco, which also shot 292 Wednesday. San Diego sophomore Grant Forrest won the individual title with a 6-under 210 total (74-67-69) to finish four shots ahead of Gonzaga's James Fahy, who shot a final-round 68. Forrest, of North Berwick, Scotland, is No. 115 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings. Forrest, last year's West Coast Conference freshman of the year, started the final round with a one-shot lead over St. Mary's Mac McClung and BYU's Joe Parkinson. Forrest's final-round 69 was the second-best round of the day, though. He made just five ...

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Pedro Figueiredo won the Transamerica/WFG Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo on April 14. No. 14 in the Golfweek Rankings, Figueiredo shot rounds of 65-71-68. His two-shot victory was the third of his four years at UCLA.

Cal won its ninth title of the season on April 14 at the Transamerica/WFG Western Intercollegiate. The Golden Bears erased a nine-shot deficit in the final round to win by 13. The No. 1 team in the country shot rounds of 350-361-340 in the play-six-count-five format.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. –– While everyone else was glued to Masters coverage Sunday afternoon in the Pasatiempo clubhouse, Steve Desimone was still fighting off jet lag. The veteran Cal coach had left assistant coach Walter Chun in charge of the team early in the week as Desimone headed to Augusta, Ga., with redshirt junior Michael Weaver, runner-up at last year’s U.S. Amateur.

Desimone returned west just in time.

To achieve their ninth victory of the season Sunday, the Golden Bears had to erase the nine-shot deficit that stood between them and leader UCLA from a marathon Saturday at the Transamerica/WFG Western Intercollegiate. Cal wasted no time, as the Nos. 1 and 2 players made up five shots on their UCLA counterparts over the first three holes alone. By the middle of the round, Cal had taken the outright lead, and the team expanded it quickly from there.

By holing a 12-footer for birdie at Pasatiempo’s 18th, lone Cal senior Max Homa got the Golden Bears to 10-under 340 for the round (the Western is a play-six-count-five format). That 18-hole score is 10 shots lower than what Cal shot in Round 1, and 21 shots lower than Round ...

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SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – It was a chilly sunset at Pasatiempo on Saturday, which made UCLA’s nine-shot Transamerica/WFG Western Intercollegiate lead seem a little unusual. Somehow, a bunch of boys from sunny Southern California built a significant lead on a day where temperatures dove and the wind gusted.

The significance wasn’t lost on UCLA senior Pontus Widegren, whose rounds of 66-69 held up for the lowest 36-hole total of the tournament.

“Even though we’re from la-la land, where it’s never windy or anything, we’ve played a lot of golf all around the U.S.,” Widegren said. “... We have a lot of experience on how to tackle things and when to be aggressive and when to not be.”

The thing is, UCLA doesn’t stay in its “la-la” bubble long enough to be hindered by postcard Los Angeles weather. As head coach Derek Freeman pointed out, the Bruins are all over the country – they’ve made multiple trips to Georgia and Oregon this season, as well as Texas, Hawaii and have been up and down their home state. In addition, Freeman’s UCLA squad is smart on the course, so when winds picked up late in ...

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SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – San Diego State got to take one of the most coveted statements in college golf away from the 2011-12 season. The Aztecs were one of eight teams to qualify for the NCAA Championship match-play bracket.

In the four years since the new championship format was implemented, never before had an Aztec team made it to match play. San Diego State lost to Cal in the quarterfinals and finished the season No. 14 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings. It ended a historic season that included five victories, four of which came consecutively late in the season.

As will happen with college programs, commencement took a heavy hit on head coach Ryan Donovan’s roster. Four senior members of the the San Diego State quarterfinal team moved on at the end of the season. Tom Berry was the sole returner this season.

Last season’s efforts earned Donovan, now in his ninth year leading the Aztecs, serious consideration for National Coach of the Year. This week, give the coach – and his young team – credit for the show they’re putting on early on a 36-hole day at the Transamerica/WFG Western Intercollegiate. San Diego State took the lead ...

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SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – If you could pull your eyes away from the stunning view off Pasatiempo’s first tee on Friday morning – one that, on a clear day, stretches to the Monterey Bay – a glance to the right revealed a 20-feet-tall electronic scoreboard. To the left, players milled about the putting green, preparing for the practice round. It’s Transamerica/WFG Western Intercollegiate week in Santa Cruz.

Rarely does a college event find a consistent home and date for more than half a century, but this year marks the 67th anniversary of the Western. It’s the oldest college tournament on the West Coast, and it carries a deep history. The past-champions list is dotted with tour players such as Arron Oberholser (San Jose State), Mark O’Meara (Long Beach State), Johnny Miller (BYU) and perhaps most legendary, Ken Venturi. The latter played for tournament host San Jose State in the early 1950s, and is part of the Spartans’ strong bond to Pasatiempo, a highly acclaimed (and highly challenging) Alister MacKenzie design.

“I don’t know an older golf tournament with a richer tradition,” said John Kennaday, San Jose State head coach. “Some of our champions have done some pretty ...

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It seems like every year, at some point in the season, I become puzzled by the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV.

So why should this time around be any different? Well, it isn’t, especially after what transpired this past weekend at the Arizona State Thunderbird Invitational.

Yes, once again coach Dwaine Knight’s Rebels have me scratching my head and wondering whether these guys are pretenders or contenders.

Last fall, UNLV opened its season nicely with a T-2 at the Air Force Falcon and an impressive T-3 at the Ping/Golfweek Preview. Then the Rebels slid to a 10th-place finish at the Nicklaus Invitational.

Still, they were able to close the fall on decent notes: fourth at the Jerry Pate and second at the Herb Wimberly.

Then came the spring season. The Rebels got going with a so-so sixth place at the John Burns in Hawaii, but followed with disappointing ninth-place showings at their own Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters and the Don Puckette National Invitation in Arizona.

At this point, I definitely put them in the pretenders category.

But wait! Last weekend UNLV bested the 18-team field in the Thunderbird at Karsten Golf Club in Tempe, Ariz., for its first ...

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