By Canadian Press

Scheffler wins PGA Tour player of the year for third straight time

Dec 10, 2024 | 5:22 PM

Scottie Scheffler added another trophy to his awesome display Tuesday when he won the Jack Nicklaus Award as PGA Tour player of the year in a landslide, joining Tiger Woods as the only players to win the award three straight times.

Scheffler won 91 per cent of the vote from players and appeared to be the obvious choice given the victories he piled up, including an Olympic gold medal when he shot 62 on the final day.

His seven PGA Tour wins included a second Masters title, and he became the first repeat winner of The Players Championship. He also won the Tour Championship to claim the FedEx Cup. His other four wins were all signature events against the strongest fields — Bay Hill and Memorial, Hilton Head and Hartford.

While no one could match that year, there was the question of how players would view Xander Schauffele’s rare feat of winning two majors in one year, at the PGA Championship and the British Open. Scheffler’s standard was too much to overlook.

Schauffele became the first player to win two majors and not be voted player of the year since the award began in 1990. Nick Faldo won the Masters and British Open in 1990, but he was not a PGA Tour member and ineligible for the award.

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Rory McIlroy was the third name on the ballot.

Woods is an 11-time winner of the award, winning five straight times (1999 through 2003) and three straight times (2005-2007).

McIlroy is the only other player to win the award three times, in 2012, 2014 and 2019.

Scheffler has wound up in the same conversation with Woods a lot lately — from his statistics, the first to win seven times in a season since Woods in 2007, and the first to hold the No. 1 ranking the entire year since Woods in 2009.

He finds comparisons to “a bit silly.”

“There’s really only one Tiger,” Scheffler said on a conference call. “I’m trying to get the best out of myself and that’s really all I’m focused on. I’m not chasing records or chasing history or anything like that, I’m just trying to day in and day out continue to improve a little bit, just go out there and compete, have fun.”

Scheffler doesn’t rank his wins or much else, though he conceded this was the best golf he played across the year. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in his sixth start of the year, and then never went more than two tournaments without winning.

“Scottie took on challenges from the best players in the world on the biggest stages all season, and being honoured as PGA Tour player of the year is the ultimate sign of respect from his peers,” Commissioner Jay Monahan said.

Scheffler also won the Byron Nelson Award for the second straight year for having the lowest scoring average. Overlooked as he kept winning titles was his streak of 28 consecutive rounds under par to start the year.

He was not over par in any round until Saturday at the PGA Championship, the day after he was arrested going into Valhalla as a traffic fatality was being investigated. The charges were dropped a few weeks later, a strange episode in an otherwise spotless season.

The PGA Tour keeps a huge menu of statistics — one of them “distance from the edge of the fairway” — but Scheffler was around the top at most of the big ones involving strokes gained. He was first overall and approach to the green, second off the tee. He was 77th in putting, tried a new “claw” putting grip in the Bahamas last week and won the Hero World Challenge by six.

He shattered the PGA Tour earnings record, somewhat inevitable given the spike in prize money this year with 11 tournaments with prize funds of $20 million or more, not including the four majors.

Scheffler won just over $29.2 million in 18 official tournaments with prize money, along with the $25 million FedEx Cup bonus and the $8 million bonus for leading the regular season.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press