Scottie Scheffler has been voted PGA Tour player of the year over Masters champion Jon Rahm, a player vote that raises questions of whether Rahm was penalized for defecting to LIV Golf.
Scheffler is the first back-to-back winner since Tiger Woods in 2006-07. The world’s No. 1 player had the best statistical season since Woods by leading the tour in all the important categories from the tee to the green, along with scoring.
He had the seventh-lowest adjust scoring average (68.63) in PGA Tour history — the top six belong to Woods — and finished out of the top 10 only six times in 23 tournaments from a season that began in September 2022. At one point, Scheffler went 18 consecutive starts where his worst finish was 12th.
“Anything that you receive voted on by your peers is very special to me and being able to go home with this trophy two years in a row now is very special,” Scheffler said. “I think the body of work I put in last year … I was very proud of that consistency.”
What he lacked, compared with Rahm, was winning.
Scheffler won The Players Championship and the Phoenix Open. Rahm, however, won four times, including his second major when he captured the Masters.
The PGA Tour said voting took place from Dec. 1 through Dec. 15. Rahm, who for 18 months had been an ardent supporter of the tour, donned a LIV letterman’s jacket and announced he was joining the Saudi-funded rival league on Dec. 7.
The tour said Scheffler received 38% of the vote in what was believed to be a tight race. It did not disclose the voting percentage received by Rahm, FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland, U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark or Rory McIlroy.
The tour previously did not release any vote totals for the award. Now it withholds what percentage of players voted.
