Tiger Woods snares 11th PGA Tour Player of the Year award
The honour caps a season in which the 37-year-old won five events and led all players with US$8.6 million in prize money
Tiger Woods was named the US PGA Tour’s Player of the Year for the first time in four years and a record-extending 11th for his career.
It caps a season in which he won five events and led all players with US$8.6 million in prize money.
Woods, 37, won the award in a vote of US tour players. Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson were also on the ballot.
The No1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, Woods won five of the 16 tour events in which he competed. No other player on the ballot won more than twice this season, which ended on September 22 with Stenson’s victory at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
Woods, who has not won one of golf’s four major titles since the 2008 US Open, said he was “very satisfied” with his season after finishing 22nd out of 30 players in the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.
“Overall, at the end of the year, I think it’s been a really good year,” Woods said as the Tour Championship ended.
Woods was second in the tour’s season-long points competition to Stenson of Sweden, the winner of the points title and its US$10 million bonus to go with his victories at the Tour Championship and Deutsche Bank Championship, two of the four season-ending play-off events.
The Player of the Year award, named after 18-time major tournament winner Jack Nicklaus, is intended to focus on the golfer who does best on the US tour, with voting limited to members of the circuit, the richest in golf.
Woods has won 14 major championships, four behind Nicklaus’ record, and 79 US tour events, three shy of Sam Snead’s career mark.
Ballots for the award went out to PGA Tour players after the conclusion of the Tour Championship. Vote totals were not disclosed yesterday by the Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida-based Tour, the world’s richest golf circuit.
Woods, a full-time US tour player since 1997, also won the PGA of America’s Player of the Year and Vardon Trophy awards yesterday. The Vardon Trophy goes to the tour player with the lowest average adjusted score for the season, with Woods topping the list at 68.985 strokes per round.
Jordan Spieth was named Rookie of the Year by the US tour. Spieth, winner of the John Deere Classic and the only first-year player to qualify for the Tour Championship, became the youngest player to win a PGA Tour event since 1931 when he captured the John Deere title at age 19. Spieth led all rookies in earnings and finished 10th on the money list with US$3.9 million.
Spieth was selected for the rookie honour over Derek Ernst, Russell Henley and David Lingmerth.
