Ahead of the 2024 season opener at Sentry, the PGA Tour announced the winners of its Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards.
Scottie Scheffler won the former, making him the Jack Nicklaus Award winner for the second consecutive season. He is the first player to achieve this feat since Tiger Woods won this honor three years in a row from 2005 to 2007.
Members vote on these two honors. Voting took place from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15 to determine the winner, with the former Texas Longhorn receiving 38% of the vote.
Scheffler also received the Byron Nelson Award for having the lowest scoring average of the year. His average score of 68.63 was the lowest since Tiger Woods' 68.05 in 2009.
“Everything that you receive, that was voted on by your colleagues, is very special to me. It's very special to be able to go home with this trophy for the second year in a row,” Scheffler told The Sentry. I spoke beforehand. I think what I worked on last year was consistency and top finishing most weeks I played. I am very grateful for this award because I was proud of my consistency. ”
In 2023, the world's No. 1 player won twice on the PGA Tour and finished the year with a third unofficial win at the Hero World Challenge. He defended his title at the WM Phoenix Open last February, winning the Players Championship by five strokes.
Scheffler started 23 games last season. In these events, he recorded 13 top-5 finishes and 17 top-10 finishes. He broke the 18-year record set by Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods in 2005 with 13 top-five finishes each. That year, Singh had 18 top 10 finishes.
The 27-year-old set a PGA Tour record for official winnings in a single season with $21,014,342. He won over $14 million in 2022, breaking his own record.
Scheffler's victory comes with some controversy. The day before, the Golf Writers Association of America named Jon Rahm the 2023 PGA Tour Player of the Year. Mr. Scheffler himself said late last year that he would probably get the vote, knowing that Mr. Rahm was focused on winning for him.
Rahm had four wins, including his second major win at the Masters.
Some wonder if this vote by players is related to Rahm's shock move to LIV last month.
But it wasn't just this award that raised eyebrows.
Photo credit: Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR, Getty Images
Eric Cole won the Arnold Palmer Award over Ludvig Oberg and was named Rookie of the Year.
Cole received 51% of the Rookie of the Year votes, making him, at age 35, the second-oldest player to win this honor.
He defeated three other rookie candidates, Ludwig Oberg, Nico Echavarria, and Vincent Norman.
No one thought Echavarria or Norman would have a chance. But Oberg, who didn't turn pro until June, played otherworldly golf in the final months of the season.
Of his last six tournaments, Oberg finished in the top 15 in all six, including three in the top three, and won the RSM Classic. Many believe his promotion was enough to earn him this award. But that wasn't the case.
Despite failing to record a win in 2023, Cole finished the season in 43rd place, becoming the only rookie to play in the BMW Championship.
Cole said ahead of Sentry: “I was so happy to finally be on tour and any chance I had to be on tour felt like a huge privilege.” “I didn't get off to the best start, missing a few early cuts, but then I picked it up and started playing pretty well in the second half, consistently, and ended with a pretty good fall. Great.”
Cole won Rookie of the Year 50 years after his mother, Laura Baugh, incredibly won LPGA Rookie of the Year in 1973.
He also had four top-five finishes during the fall FedEx Cup season, including his last three starts.
In total, Cole recorded two runner-up finishes and six top-five finishes. Cole missed the playoffs at the 2023 Cognizant Classic and finished second to Collin Morikawa at the ZOZO Championship. He led the PGA Tour with 554 birdies, beating out second place with 59 birdies.
The two teams are scheduled to play this week at the Sentry in Kapalua, Maui.
Savannah Lee Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through.If you want to know more about golf, please follow us. @_PlayingThrough On all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirls and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
