ROWLANDS Castle’s Billy McKenzie has been nominated for the prestigious Jack Nicklaus Award for the second year running, after his all-conquering stellar season on the US college golf circuit.

McKenzie’s William Woods University team has swept all before it as the 21-year-old picked up five individual titles on the way to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) finals.

The winner – who will be announced on Thursday, June 2, will also get the chance to play in the Barbasol Shootout, at the Scioto Country Club, the course where Nicklaus learned to play the game as a junior, on June 4.

The winner of the shootout will compete in the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship, which is being held at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, at Grand National in Opelika, Alabama, from July 14-17, the same week of The 145th Open Championship, at Royal Troon.

McKenzie could be presented with the Jack Nicklaus Award from the all-time Major record winner himself, during the final round of the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament, which is due to be held at Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club, in Dublin, Ohio, on June 5.

Memorial was won in 2013 by another former Hampshire junior star – Justin Rose so it would be fitting for one of only three Hampshire-based American college golfers to receive the award from the golf legend at the course most closely associated with Nicklaus, and which hosted the 1987 Ryder Cup.

McKenzie, who is studying for a degree in sports management, returned to America in time for the autumn term after the biggest win of his golf career on this side of the Atlantic, claiming The Berkshire Trophy, last June.

The Berkshire is one of the most historic strokeplay events in the UK golf calendar and has been won by many of the amateur game’s biggest names, stretching back to the Second World War.

Buoyed by that confidence on top of his outstanding first two seasons Stateside, the county colt has taken his game to new levels of consistency in the 2015-16 season, with a stroke average of 71.79.

On top of the five wins, he only finished outside the top six twice in 11 events, earning him the American Midwest Conference Player of the Year title after his college claimed the AMC qualifier for a third year in a row.

In his debut season in the States, McKenzie claimed the NAIA’s Phil Mickelson Freshman of the Year Award, in 2014.