Senior J.F. Aber named finalist for Division III Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award

| 2024 NCAA Division III Jack Nicklaus Award finalists release |

SPRINGFIELD — Wittenberg senior J.F. Aber (Pittsburgh, Pa./Sewickley Academy) has been named a finalist for the 2024 NCAA Division III Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Workday, the Golf Coaches Association of America announced on Tuesday.

Aber is one of five finalists for this year's award, joining Methodist's Cam Cappuzzo and Cooper Hrabak, Carnegie Mellon's Justin Chan and Emory's Jackson Klutznick, all of whom are competing in this week's NCAA Division III Championships in Boulder City, Nevada. The winner will be announced by Nicklaus on Tuesday, June 4, during his annual Memorial press conference with awards presented to each of the recipients by Nicklaus and Workday.

A three-time NCAA Division III PING All-Region honoree and a PING Second Team All-America in each of the past two seasons, Aber was the 2024 North Coast Athletic Conference Championships medalist and NCAC Player of the Year. He was also a four-time NCAC Men's Golfer of the Week selection and was one of just 16 current and former NCAC student-athletes to be recognized on the conference's 40th Anniversary All-Decade Team this year.

Currently No. 12 nationally in the NCAA Division III Scoreboard rankings, Aber was the individual medalist in five of the Tigers' 11 events this season and posted a three-round school-record 9-under-par at the Savannah Invitational on March 4-5. He won the NCAC Championships tournament by a margin of four strokes at 5-under-par. His first-round 68 and second-round 66 were the best in the 40-man field in each of those rounds, and his total of 205 marked a school-record score for a three-round tournament.

In four years at Wittenberg, he has twice been named NCAC Player of the Year (2023 and 2024) and is a four-time All-NCAC honoree (First Team in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and Second Team in 2021) and seven-time NCAC Athlete of the Week.

The Wittenberg men's golf team posted first-place finishes at five events this season and is ranked No. 15 in the Bushnell/Golfweek NCAA Division III Coaches Poll. The Tigers were the NCAC Championships runner-up and are competing in this week's NCAA Division III Championships tournament as an at-large selection.

This marks the Tigers' third straight appearance in the NCAA Championships after posting finishes of seventh and 13th, respectively, the prior two years. Individually, Aber posted respective finishes of tied for third and tied for 51st in those events.

Nicklaus, a Big Ten and NCAA champion at Ohio State, helped inspire and create the Jack Nicklaus Award in 1988. The award is now presented to the National Player of the Year in NCAA Divisions I, II and III, as well as NAIA and NJCAA.