This year, we had five very strong candidates for PGA TOUR Player of the Year. Phil Mickelson, who finally won an Open Championship; Adam Scott who won his first Major at Augusta and became the first Australian to win a green jacket; Henrik Stenson, who has been arguably the most consistent player on TOUR and recent winner of the TOUR Championship and FedEx Cup; Matt Kuchar for his strong play this year; and of course, Tiger Woods, with his five win season.
This morning, the PGA TOUR and it’s players voted and for the 11th time in his career, Tiger Woods is the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year. Although none of his five wins were Majors (5-year Major-less streak), Woods did win at some of his favourite courses, including the Farmers Insurance at Torrey Pines. This was the site of his last Major championship win, the 2008 US Open and also the place where he would become the first player in Tour history to win on the same course eight times. He also won at the WGC-Cadillac at Doral, the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone South.
Tiger was also awarded his ninth career Vardon Trophy for lowest adjusted scoring average and was named the PGA of America’s Player of the Year for the 11th time. In addition, he had eight top-10 finishes this year, never missed a cut and won the money title on the PGA Tour with $8.5 million in 16 starts! And hearing from Woods himself, “there were a lot of people who said I could never win again, and two years later, I’ve got eight wins on Tour. It just makes it all the more rewarding.”
The Rookie of the Year Award was probably much easier to come to a decision. Jordan Spieth is a 20 year old rookie who started his year on the Web.com Tour with no status and played his way onto the PGA Tour by winning the John Deere Classic, having three runner up finishes and nine top-10’s, being the only rookie to reach the TOUR Championship and earning a captain’s selection on the US President’s Cup Team (He will be the youngest American and first PGA Tour rookie to play in the President’s Cup!). He’s also jumped from number 810 in the World Rankings to number 21! We can’t wait to watch both Tiger and Jordan at the President’s Cup next week!
Source: PGA TOUR
