ATLANTA – Winning two majors in a year used to be a shoo-in for earning the points-based award for player of the year presented annually by the PGA of America since 1948. Xander Schauffele was in line to get at least one award this year.
A major is worth 30 points. Two majors comes with a 50-point bonus.
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Schauffele, the PGA Championship and British Open champion, effectively clinched the award last week when Scottie Scheffler did not win the BMW Championship. Schauffele would have had 148 points — two majors, the bonus and 19 points each for being second in scoring average and money. Even if he won the Tour Championship, Scheffler would have had only 140 points.
There's just one problem — the PGA award no longer exists.
In a decision that was not announced at the time, the PGA of America two years ago quietly chose to end its awards for PGA Tour players — player of the year and the Vardon Trophy.
“We are no longer presenting the PGA Player of the Year and Vardon Trophy awards because similar awards are being given by the PGA Tour,” the PGA of America said Tuesday in a statement.
The last PGA of America awards went to Rory McIlroy (Vardon) and Cameron Smith (player of the year) in 2022.
The PGA Tour's award for player of the year is decided by a vote of the players, and this could go in any direction. Scheffler has been nothing short of astounding this year with the Masters, The Players Championship, four titles in signature events, an Olympic gold medal and the lowest scoring average since Tiger Woods.
But a number of players lean toward multiple majors, the most meaningful titles in golf. It could come down to one of them winning the FedEx Cup.
The PGA Tour award — named after Jack Nicklaus — dates to 1990. The only player who captured two majors and did not win the award was Nick Faldo that year and for good reason: He was not a PGA Tour member and thus was ineligible for the award.
The PGA of America had been regarded as little more than a footnote for several years, mainly because so much in week-to-week golf revolves around the PGA Tour.
But with a player-only vote comes the problem of who actually votes. Scheffler wasn't sure how many times he submitted his ballot and said he wouldn't vote for himself.
The greatest example of voter turnout was 2010, when the award for rookie of the year came down to Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy. Neither reached the Tour Championship. Their records were very similar except that McIlroy won at Quail Hollow. The vote went to Fowler.
The day after it was announced, Dustin Johnson was asked what he thought about the rookie award. He replied, “Man, that's a tough one. I'm not sure who I'm going to vote for.” Just a hunch, but he probably forgot to vote.
The curious decision was ending the Vardon Trophy, which dated to 1937. The PGA Tour basically copied that award — the adjusted scoring average — with the Byron Nelson Award. The only difference was the Vardon required 60 rounds, while only 50 rounds were required for the PGA Tour version.
The winner typically was referenced as winning the Vardon, not the Nelson. But no more.
Nelly Korda and the majors
Nelly Korda won the first LPGA major of the year and tied an LPGA record in the process with her fifth consecutive victory. The rest of the majors were memorable for other reasons.
She took a 10 on her third hole of the U.S. Women's Open at Lancaster, shot 80 in the opening round and missed the cut. She was one off the lead after one round of the Women's PGA at Sahalee and shot 81 in the second round to miss the cut.
More painful was the Women's British Open at St. Andrews, where she had a two-shot lead until taking double bogey on the par-5 14th, and then failing to get up-and-down from the Road Hole bunker on the 17th. She finished two behind Lydia Ko.
Korda has enjoyed a stellar season with six wins and a major, and she is not one to make excuses about the rough times. St. Andrews was no exception.
“Listen, it’s golf,” Korda said. “I’m going to mess up and unfortunately I messed up over the weekend twice in two penalizing ways coming down the stretch. Theoretically that’s what kind of cost me the tournament. But I played well. I played solid. I even fought after that. I’m going to take that into the next coming events.”
There's something else she looks forward to the rest of the year after coping with high wind at the home of golf.
“It will be interesting to see when I don’t play in 30, 40 mph wind what my ball flight is going to be like, finally seeing it go straight," she said.
The last new test for Ludvig Aberg
Ludvig Aberg turned pro in June 2023 after his senior year at Texas Tech and has spent the last 15 months learning a lot of new course. The three he had played before were Bay Hill, the TPC River Highlands (Travelers) and the Renaissance Club (Scottish Open).
The toughest for him to learn was Riviera.
“It's so good because it’s stood the test of time. But it’s still really tricky when the greens are firm and you’re really working the angles,” Aberg said. “I think once you have played there a few times, you kind of know where you can’t go and where you should have the pitches from and the putts from. I’m definitely looking forward to coming back there next year and giving it another shot.”
Summer days and long drives
The father of Keegan Bradley watched him win on the PGA Tour for the first time at the BMW Championship. Before that, it was mostly amateur events, and Mark Bradley singled out the Wyoming State Amateur. His son won it in 2005 when he was 19.
What was a New England kid doing in Wyoming? His father was the pro at Jackson Hole, and Bradley used to drive 2,100 miles (3,400 miles) out there from college at St. John's in the summer.
“I would play in the Wyoming State Amateur and the Wyoming Open. I was out there for three summers, I believe,” Bradley said. “So I would get done with school in Queens, get in my Ford Focus and drive for three days to Jackson and work all summer, play golf and fish and play in those local tournaments, and it was great.”
Divots
Three PGA Tour players from the top 25 in the world ranking did not reach the Tour Championship — Brian Harman (17), Tom Kim (22) and Max Homa (23). ... Shigeki Maruyama will be at the Presidents Cup as an assistant captain to Mike Weir. Maruyama played on the last International team that won, in 1998 at Royal Melbourne. He went 5-0 that week ... Royal Dornoch in Scotland has been selected to host the Curtis Cup in 2028. ... Francesco Molinari (Continental Europe) and Justin Rose (Britain and Ireland) will be captains of the Team Cup on Jan. 10-12 in Abu Dhabi. The event is played during Ryder Cup years. ... Matt McCarty won his third Korn Ferry Tour title this year and earned instant promotion to the PGA Tour.
Stat of the week
The BMW Championship at Castle Pines was only the third non-major that Scottie Scheffler failed to break 70 over four rounds. The others were Muirfield Village and Shadow Creek, both in 2020 during his rookie season.
Final word
“These are things that I could have never imagined because they were just too good to be true.” — Lydia Ko, who won the Olympic gold medal and the Women's British Open at St. Andrews in a span of 16 days.
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