Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy has been named 2019 PGA TOUR Player of the Year as voted by the TOUR’s membership for the 2018-19 season. McIlroy receives the Jack Nicklaus Award for winning Player of the Year honors for the third time in his career (2012, 2014, 2019). It was a close race between McIlroy and the favourite, Brooks Koepka, who won back-to-back PGA Championships in 2018 and 2019. He was also selected for the honor over Matt Kuchar and Xander Schauffele.
McIlroy opened the 2019 calendar year with top-sixes in his first five starts before winning THE PLAYERS for his 15th career PGA TOUR victory. He became only the third player to win THE PLAYERS, a major, the FedExCup and a World Golf Championships event in a career, joining Tiger Woods and Henrik Stenson. Six starts later, McIlroy made his tournament debut at the RBC Canadian Open, where he set the tournament record and won by seven shots, the largest winning margin of the season. Three of McIlroy’s 14 top-10 finishes came at World Golf Championships events: Mexico Championship/2, Dell Technologies Match Play/T9 and FedEx St. Jude Invitational/T4. His 14 top-10 finishes were a Tour-best – this consistency throughout the season was shown by his season long adjusted scoring average of 69.057, allowing McIlroy to win the Byron Nelson Award for the third time in his career.
McIlroy ended the PGA TOUR Regular Season at No. 2 in the FedExCup standings, claiming second place in the inaugural Wyndham Rewards Top 10, a $10 million bonus pool split among the top-10 finishers in the FedExCup Regular Season. McIlroy entered the TOUR Championship at No. 5 in the FedExCup standings, beginning the FedExCup Playoffs finale at 5-under, based on the new FedExCup Starting Strokes system. With rounds of 66-67-68-66, McIlroy won the TOUR Championship and hoisted the FedExCup for the second time in his career, joining Tiger Woods as the only players who have won multiple FedEx Cups. All that is missing now is the Green Jacket for Rory in order to complete his career grand slam.
Source: PGA TOUR
