Scheffler beats Rahm for PGA Tour Player
Twice is nice for Scottie Scheffler.
On Wednesday, the 27-year-old Texan was named the winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award as the PGA Tour Player of the Year for the 2022-23 season. In doing so, he becomes the first player to win Player of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons since Tiger Woods won the award in three straight years from 2005 to 2007.
“I was very pleased with the news. I was very proud of how I played most of last year. The consistency was very special to me,” Scheffler said. “To be able to win this award two years in a row is truly special.”
The Player of the Year award is determined by a member vote, with PGA Tour members who played in at least 15 official FedExCup events during the 2022-23 wraparound season eligible to vote. The voting period ran from Dec. 1 through Dec. 15.
Scheffler received 38% of the vote and was selected over four other nominees: U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, FedExCup champ Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy and Masters champ Jon Rahm.
Rahm, who won the GWAA Player of the Year Award on Tuesday, which is voted on by members of the Golf Writers Association of America, won four times before defecting to LIV Golf last month.
When Scheffler was asked if he was surprised that he won, he said, “Maybe a little bit. I think it was a close race. It could have gone either way.”
Asked the same question on a separate conference with media he said, “I just think it depends on what the guys kind of looked at for their vote. I guess this year they really kind of appreciated my consistency. Like I said, I was very proud of that. The way I played the entire year, I think I maybe only had one or two starts that were – that I would categorize as not great. But other than that I had a lot of starts where I just played really solid golf, and to do that for an entire season out here I think is very difficult. I’m very proud of that aspect of my game.”
Scheffler won twice during the 2022-23 season, successfully defending his title at the WM Phoenix Open and winning The Players Championship by five strokes. (He also won the Hero World Challenge in December.) In 23 starts, Scheffler recorded 13 top-five finishes and 17 top-10s, both high marks for any player in a single season on the PGA Tour since 2005, when Vijay Singh and Woods each had 13 top-fives and Singh had 18 top-10s. Scheffler never missed a cut and set the tour record for most official money earned in a single season at $21,014,342, breaking his own record set last season ($14,046,910).
Scheffler is the fourth player to win the Jack Nicklaus Award in back-to-back seasons since the award was established in 1990, joining Fred Couples (1991, 1992), Nick Price (1993, 1994) and Woods (five straight from 1999 to 2003, three straight from 2005 to 2007). McIlroy (three times) and Dustin Johnson (twice) are the only other players to win Player of the Year honors multiple times.
Scheffler also received the Byron Nelson Award for recording the lowest scoring average on the tour in 2022-23. At 68.63, Scheffler’s scoring average was the lowest on the tour since Tiger Woods in 2009 (68.05).
Scheffler was presented the award at The Sentry.