Tag: Arnold Palmer Award

35-year-old Eric Cole wins PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year, second-oldest winner in history

Cole finished in the top five in four of his final five events in 2023.

Eric Cole waited more than a decade to get his PGA Tour card after turning pro.

The wait paid off.

Cole, 35, was named the Tour’s 2022-23 Rookie of the Year on Wednesday to win the Arnold Palmer Award. He’s the second-oldest winner of the Arnold Palmer Award in the Tour’s history (Todd Hamilton was 38 when he won in 2004) and he beat out rising star Ludvig Aberg for the title.

The PGA Tour Player of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year awards are determined by a member vote, with Tour members who played in at least 15 official FedExCup events during the 2022-23 season eligible to vote. Scottie Scheffler was voted Player of the Year.

“It’s a huge honor to win Rookie of the Year,” Cole said. “It’s an award in golf where you only get one chance to win it, which is a little bit unique. To win that and be voted by my peers is pretty incredible, and it’s just a huge honor.”

Cole’s mother, Laura Baugh, was the LPGA Rookie of the Year in 1973.

Cole had seven top-10 finishes last season, including a runner-up at the Honda Classic (now the Cognizant Classic). There were 28 rookies last season and he was the only one to finish in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings.

He finished in the top five in four of his final five events in 2023, helping secure his status among the up-and-comers on the PGA Tour and the title of Rookie of the Year.

BY THE NUMBERS: Did the players get the vote right?

Over the last 12 months, Cole rose from 228th to 20th in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings but his year did get off to a rocky start. He missed his first four cuts, which included testing positive for COVID-19 at the 2022 Fortinet Championship and then having his clubs stolen a couple weeks later at the Shriners Children’s Open.

He ended up making 37 starts, though, with his best finish coming at the Honda when he fell in a playoff against Chris Kirk. He tied for second at the Zozo Championship in Japan and finished T-3 at the season-ending RSM Classic.

“It was a long year,” Cole said. “I got a lot of comments that I played a lot, but I was just so happy to be out on Tour finally, and any chance I had to compete on Tour just felt like a huge privilege.

“I didn’t get off to the best start missing some early cuts, but then kind of got it together a little bit and started to play really consistently and pretty well there the last half of the year and kind of capped it off with a pretty good fall, so it was awesome.”

His last missed cut came in May at the Charles Schwab Challenge, making 15 straight cuts to end the year. He’s in the field at the season-opening The Sentry, playing in the first two rounds with Open champion Brian Harman and Camilo Villegas.

Every winner of the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year Award (some names may surprise you)

Meet all 33 players who have received the Arnold Palmer Award.

The silly season debate on who deserves to be the Rookie of the Year will make for an interesting few weeks during the PGA Tour’s offseason this winter, as both Eric Cole and recent winner Ludvig Aberg are the frontrunners vying for the honor.

The PGA Tour has given the Arnold Palmer Award to its Rookie of the Year annually since Robert Gamez was the inaugural winner in 1990. Many a major champion have earned the honor – including the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler, to name a few – but a few of the winners may surprise you.

Meet all 33 winners of the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year Award.

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A first PGA Tour win at Arnold Palmer Invitational would be special for reigning Rookie of the Year Cameron Young

Despite five close calls last season, Young explained why he doesn’t feel the need to win on the PGA Tour this year.

Cameron Young finished runner-up five times last season on the PGA Tour.

To come so close, so often to a first victory on Tour at just 25 years old, you would think Young has one clear goal for 2023: win. Right?

Not quite.

“I feel like I did play really nicely last year. I think there is some emphasis put on me trying to win for the first time, which of course I am,” said Young ahead of this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. “But I think, for me, I have to look at it as I could win a golf tournament this year and not necessarily be any better than last year. I don’t know if it is a mark of improvement for me in that sense.

“I think obviously you have to play some tremendous golf to win out here and I played some tremendous golf last year. I just happened to get beat by one guy a few times.”

Over 25 starts last season as a PGA Tour rookie, Young made 18 cuts and finished inside the top 25 a whopping 12 times, including his five close calls, one of which came at the British Open. The New York native and now-Florida resident also finished T-2 at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Genesis Invitational, Wells Fargo Championship and Rocket Mortgage Classic.

MORE: Cameron Young through the years

“So I’m really just trying to stick to what I know and continue to get better. Which I think I’m doing,” Young explained. “I don’t think the results have showed it this year thus far. But I’ve played some nice golf and I think if I just kind of keep sticking to what I do, keep pounding the stone, the results will speak for themselves.”

For his efforts last season, Young won the Arnold Palmer Award winner as the Tour’s rookie of the year. As if this week at Bay Hill wasn’t special for Wake Forest grad.

“I think he is one of the most important people in the world of golf, especially in the world of professional golf in history. So any time you get to be connected to him in any way at all is special. I think it’s a sign that you’re doing some things right,” said Young of his connection to Palmer. “So to win his award and put myself not only on that list of names that have won that award, but just to connect with Mr. Palmer in another way is very special.

I’ve been looking forward to coming back all year. It’s one of my favorites of the year. It’s an unbelievable golf course. I’m very familiar with the area. My family used to kind of spend some time here in the winter. So it kind of feels a little bit like home. It’s one I look forward to all year.

Sounds like the perfect place for a first win, doesn’t it?

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PGA Tour announces finalists for 2021-22 Player and Rookie of the Year awards

The winners will be announced at a later date.

The PGA Tour announced Monday the finalists for its Jack Nicklaus Award and Arnold Palmer Award for the 2021-22 season.

The Jack Nicklaus Award is given to the Tour’s Player of the Year while the Arnold Palmer Award goes to the Rookie of the Year.

The finalists for Player of the Year are Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Smith. For Rookie of the Year, it’s Tom Kim, Sahith Theegala and Cameron Young.

McIlroy, 33, had three victories, including the Tour Championship, and he finished in the top eight at every major. Scheffler, 26, had a breakout year, winning four times, including the Masters, and he finished runner-up to McIlroy at the Tour Championship. Smith, 29, won the Players Championship, the Open Championship as well as the Sentry Tournament of Champions and had the second-lowest scoring average behind McIlroy.

Kim, 20, became the second-youngest player to win on Tour since World War II with his victory at the Wyndham Championship. That earned him a spot in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and he finished 35th in the standings. Theegala, 24, had five top-five finishes and finished T-2 at the Travelers Championship and T-3 at the WM Phoenix Open. Young, 25, was the runner-up at the Open Championship and also finished second at the Sanderson Farms Championship, The Genesis Invitational, the Wells Fargo Championship and the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He also qualified for the Tour Championship.

The Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards are determined by a member vote, with Tour members who played in at least 15 official FedEx Cup events during the 2021-22 season eligible to vote. The voting will close on Friday, Sept. 9, at 5 p.m. ET. The winners will be announced at a later date.

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Without PGA Tour membership, Will Zalatoris still earns Rookie of the Year honors

Zalatoris becomes the first non-member of the PGA Tour to win the award since Charles Howell III did so in 2001.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Will Zalatoris started the PGA Tour’s 50-event super season on the Korn Ferry Tour.

He didn’t win a PGA Tour event in the 2020-21 campaign.

He didn’t get into the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Yet he did something no one has done for 20 years.

Zalatoris will receive the Arnold Palmer Award as the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year for the 2020-21 season, it was announced Monday. As voted by his peers, Zalatoris becomes the first non-member of the PGA Tour to win the award since Charles Howell III did so in 2001.

Zalatoris, 25, who has full playing privileges for the upcoming season, is scheduled to play in this week’s Fortinet Championship in Napa, California, which kicks off the 2021-22 season.

“Will’s success despite not having PGA Tour membership status at the outset of the 2020-21 season is a testament to not only his ability but also his hard work and attitude,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a release.

While he didn’t win on the PGA Tour, he earned the award for his superb consistency and spectacular play at times. He made 21 of 25 cuts on the PGA Tour, the highlights being a runner-up finish in the Masters, where he fell one shot shy of Hideki Matsuyama, and seven other top-10s. Zalatoris rose to No. 31 in the Official World Golf Rankings, where he is currently ranked. Only five players had more top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour and Zalatoris finished 18th in scoring.

His playing status, however, was put off-kilter because of COVID-19, which wiped out three months of tournaments.

Zalatoris, who made 16 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020, where he won the TPC Colorado Championship and had 10 top-10s, earned Special Temporary status on the PGA Tour last November. This allowed him to accept an unlimited number of sponsor invites on the PGA Tour.

But the PGA Tour froze player status because of the global pandemic so current members at the time would not lose their cards. No one could be promoted from the Korn Ferry Tour without earning a battlefield promotion. Zalatoris accepted the Special Temporary status and moved on to the PGA Tour.

Because eligibility rules were altered because of the coronavirus, Zalatoris earned a trip to the 2020 U.S. Open and tied for sixth. His next three starts included a tie for eighth in the Corales Puntacana Championship and a tie for fifth in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

While he banked roughly $4 million in combined earnings from both tours during the super season, he collected zero FedEx Cup points. While his non-member FedEx Cup total would have been 1,296 points, which would have ranked inside the top 30 when the playoffs started, he was stuck on zero without a win, which would have immediately made him a full member. Thus, he was unable to play in the playoffs. But his non-member points total earned his full playing status for this upcoming season.

Garrick Higgo, who won the Palmetto Championship at Congaree and is ranked No. 48 in the world, was the only other player on the ballot.

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