PGA Tour names Player of the Year, but not without whiff of controversy

Jon Rahm gained 4 occasions. Scottie Scheffler gained simply twice.

Jon Rahm gained the Masters. Scottie Scheffler gained the Gamers.

Jon Rahm performed on the successful European Ryder Cup group. Scottie Scheffler, nicely, you already know…didn’t.

However the PGA Tour introduced Tuesday that Scheffler, not Rahm, had been named the PGA Tour’s Participant of the 12 months by his friends.

The award is set by a PGA Tour member vote from gamers who performed a minimum of 15 occasions final season. Scheffler earned 38 % of the vote, beating out Rahm, Rory McIlroy and FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland; vote totals for the opposite finalists and turnout data were not provided by the PGA Tour.

And, sure, there’s additionally a sure elephant within the room: Rahm signed with LIV Golf final month and is at the moment suspended from the PGA Tour. He’s unable to defend his title this week on the Sentry, the place Scheffler accepted the award. In keeping with the AP, the participant polling was carried out from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15; Rahm introduced he was leaving for LIV on Dec. 7.

Nonetheless, Scheffler is hardly undeserving of the respect, having ended the season ranked No. 1 within the Official World Golf Rating, the identical place he started it after winning the Jack Nicklaus Award in 2022. He’s the primary participant to win the award in successive years since Tiger Woods did so from 2005-07.

Except for successful the aforementioned Gamers and WM Phoneix Open, Scheffler put collectively one of the most statistically impressive PGA Tour seasons of all time. He gained the Byron Nelson award for posting the bottom scoring common for the 12 months, a quantity (68.63) which is the seventh-lowest of all time and finest amongst anybody moreover Woods. He led the Tour in eight different statistical classes.

He additionally completed inside the highest 12 for 18 consecutive occasions and picked up greater than $21 million in official earnings, smashing his earlier report from 2022 by almost $7 million.

In the meantime, Rahm began the season on a tear, successful his first two begins on the Sentry and Amex earlier than rising to No. 1 on this planet with a win on the Genesis Invitational. He then claimed his second main title by successful the Masters by three strokes.

However his play cooled off considerably as he recorded simply two top-10s after April.

Cole snatches Rookie of the 12 months honors from Aberg

Eric Cole was named the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the 12 months. The opposite finalists have been Ludvig Aberg, Nico Echavarria and Vincent Norrman, all of whom claimed victories on the PGA Tour in 2023.

Cole, 35, is the second-oldest winner of the award and oldest since 39-year-old Todd Hamilton gained it in 2004; he’s at the moment older than 10 of the earlier 11 Rookie of the 12 months winners, per PGA Tour communications manager Jack Ryan.

Cole’s season was one in all consistency with him ending No. 43 within the FedEx Cup; he additionally was the one rookie to advance to the BMW Championship and assure begins in all eight Signature Occasions in 2024.

He led the PGA Tour in rounds, birdies and recorded the fifth-most top-fives with six.

Nonetheless, many thought Cole, regardless of incomes three of these top-fives during the last three occasions of the FedEx Cup Fall, had ceded the award to the Swedish sensation Aberg, when the latter won the season-ending RSM Classic in November.

Aberg joined the PGA Tour solely in June — the primary to take action by ending No. 1 within the PGA Tour College rankings — however made an instantaneous splash with eight top-25s in simply 11 begins as a professional in 2023. After a debut win on the DP World Tour on the eve of the European Ryder Cup captain’s decide bulletins, Aberg made Luke Donald’s team and earned two factors at Marco Simone within the house win for Europe.

He then backed up the efficiency overseas with a playoff loss on the Sanderson Farms Championship earlier than dominating at Sea Island to win the RSM by 4 pictures on the energy of back-to-back weekend 61s.

Whereas Aberg went from faculty instantly to the PGA Tour, Cole had a special journey. It took him seven years after turning professional in 2009 to lastly earn standing on the Korn Ferry Tour. Even nonetheless, he bounced on and off the Korn Ferry, racking up fairly the resume on mini-tours, whereas additionally giving classes.

Cole earned his PGA Tour card lastly in 2022 and by no means appeared again, competing in a whopping 37 occasions.

He follows within the footsteps of his mother, Laura Baugh, who was the LPGA Tour Rookie of the 12 months in 1973.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State College, incomes levels in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his highschool golf group and just lately returned to this system to function head coach. Jack additionally nonetheless *tries* to stay aggressive in native amateurs. Earlier than becoming a member of GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but in addition producing, anchoring and even presenting the climate. He could be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.