McIlroy honoured for no-major feat
Earns his peers’ nod as top player for third time, despite Koepka’s success
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLA.— Rory McIlroy is the PGA Tour player of the year, and even he was a little surprised.
In a vote of the players, who presumably gave as much weight to the whole season as the four biggest weeks, McIlroy won the Jack Nicklaus Award over Brooks Koepka. It was the third time McIlroy won the award, and the first time without having won a major.
“I’m at a loss for words,” McIlroy said Wednesday.
Moments earlier, McIlroy was sitting down with Nicklaus at The Bear’s Club in South Florida to receive the Byron Nelson Trophy for having the lowest adjusted scoring average when a bronze of the Nicklaus Award was placed on the table. McIlroy looked at it and said, “I’ve already got two of those,” he said.
“Well, you’ve got three now,” Nicklaus told him.
McIlroy won three times, including The Players Championship and the Tour Championship to earn the FedEx Cup and its $15-million (U.S.) prize. He had a tour-best 14 top 10s.
“I couldn’t be more proud to win this award for the third time,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, very ... somewhat surprised, but honoured that my fellow players thought enough of my year to award me this honour again.” Koepka won three times, same as McIlroy, led the FedEx Cup in the regular season and won the money title by nearly $2 million over McIlroy. He repeated as the winner at the PGA Championship, was runner-up at the Masters and the U.S. Open and tied for fourth in the British Open.