It’s not that it was a big surprise, but it was confirmed this Wednesday. Scottie Scheffler has received the award for PGA Tour Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. The great battle for this recognition was between the Texan and Jon Rahm, but in the end it was the former who took the prize. Nothing surprising. The vote took place as the Spanish golfer was moving to LIV Golf.
Be that as it may, it is worth pointing out. This award is not decided by the PGA Tour. It is the result of a consultation with all the members of the American circuit, who had to vote between December 1 and 15. That is, the players cast their verdict in the midst of Jon’s tsunami to LIV, since on December 7 his signing for the Saudi league was confirmed. In addition, the rumours had been around for a long time. Did his departure influence the decision? It will be hard to prove, but it looks like it.
Obviously, it doesn’t help too much that it’s a Spaniard competing against an American on a markedly American circuit, although Jon would not have been, by any means, the first European to receive this award.
Having said that, with the greatest possible objectivity, it can’t really be said that the decision is unfair, as Scheffler has had a great season. It is true that he has not won a Major and has fewer victories than Rahm, but his consistency has been impressive and he ended the year as the clear Number One in the world.
The nominees for Player of the Year, in addition to Scheffler and Rahm, were Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark. The Texan won with 38 percent of the votes. The rest of the figures are not made official. The association of golf journalists in the United States awarded its Player of the Year award to Jon Rahm.
Scheffler won twice last season, defending the title at the WM Phoenix Open and winning the THE PLAYERS Championship by five strokes. In 23 tournaments, he recorded 13 top fives and 17 top tens, a Tour record since 2005, when Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods each had 13 top fives and Vijay added 18 top tens. Scheffler also broke the PGA TOUR record for most official money won in a single season with $21,014,342.
Scottie is the fourth player to win the Jack Nicklaus Award in consecutive seasons since its inception in 1990, joining Fred Couples (1991, 1992), Nick Price (1993, 1994) and Tiger Woods (five consecutive from 1999-2003, three consecutive from 2005-2007). McIlroy (three times) and Dustin Johnson (twice) are the only players who have won the Player of the Year award multiple times.
Scheffler also received the Byron Nelson Award for the best stroke average with 68.63, the lowest average on the TOUR since Tiger Woods in 2009 (68.05).
In addition, the PGA Tour has also awarded the Arnold Palmer Rookie of the Year Award to Eric Cole by vote. He received 51% of the votes ahead of the other three nominees: Ludvig Aberg, Nico Echavarria and Vincent Norrman.
Cole finished the season in 43rd place in the official FedExCup ranking, being the only rookie to qualify for the BMW Championship. He has six top 5s this season, only surpassed by Scheffler (13), Patrick Cantlay (8), McIlroy (8) and Rahm (8), who are currently among the top five in the world. He led the TOUR with 554 birdies this season, 59 more than the second.
At 35, Cole is the second oldest player to win Rookie of the Year honours, only behind Todd Hamilton in 2004, who won the award at 39. Scheffler and Cole received the awards at The Sentry, which opens this week the 2024 season.
