Today, the Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards were given out and frankly, there weren’t any surprises. Five-time tour champion in 2013, Tiger Woods, came away with his 11th P.O.Y. award. Tiger won the Arnold Palmer money title, The Vardon Trophy, for the lowest adjusted scoring average and the five titles was the most by any player on tour. He did not win a major but no one who won a major won more than 3 titles (Phil Mickelson) so the Tiger dominance of this award continues. The Jack Nicklaus award for the Player of the Year goes to the great Tiger Woods.
The rookie of the year award went to Jordan Spieth who started the year with no status at all and finished the year with a victory and a President’s Cup team member, which, of course, will be contested next week. Spieth became the youngest man to win a title in over 82 years—at age 19 just before turning 20. There were other rookies of distinction, Russell Henley, Derek Ernst, and David Lingmerth of note but what Spieth did was nothing short of breathtaking. He went from 810th in the world in January to now 21st in the world golf rankings. This is a meteoric rise of epic proportions and I for one can’t wait to see him perform next week in the President’s Cup.
