Tag: PGA Tour rookie of the year

The reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year is cashing in this year through a busy schedule

He has already amassed $1.37 million this season although he will finally enjoy a week off.

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Eric Cole was not happy with the way he hit the ball from tee to green during Friday’s second round of the Genesis Invitational, so he headed to the range following his 18 holes and got to work. It paid off on Saturday.

And then it paid off again after Sunday’s final round, when Cole earned nearly a half-million dollars.

Cole, the South Florida resident and the PGA Tour’s 2023 rookie of the year, not only fired a 6-under 65 during the second round, but he was first in the field in strokes gained: tee to green for the day when he finished his round.

“Got some things dialed in,” Cole said. “It was definitely better (Saturday). Made a couple of putts on top of that.”

Cole improved each of the first three days at Riviera Country Club with scores of 73, 69 and 65. His final-round 69 dropped him out of contention, but he still finished strong enough to place in a six-way tie with Tommy Fleetwood, Sam Burns, Scottie Scheffler, Adam Svensson and J.T. Poston for 10th place.

That proved enough to walk home with $455,000.

Hideki Matsuyama won the event after a bogey-free 9-under 62 on Sunday. For his efforts, Matsuyama took home the signature event’s top prize of $4 million, nearly double what he earned for his 2021 Masters victory.

Will Zalatoris (69) and Luke List (68), who finished T-2 at 14 under, each took home $1.8 million as a consolation prize.

More: 2024 Genesis Invitational prize money payouts for each PGA Tour player

But for Cole, his breakout year in 2023, the year in which he turned 35. He played 37 events with seven top 10s, including two seconds. One of those was the Honda Classic (now Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches) where he lost a playoff to Chris Kirk. Cole will return to play in this year’s Cognizant, which starts Feb. 29 at PGA National.

All of that resulted in Cole capturing the tour’s Rookie of the Year, 50 years after his mom, Laura Baugh, won the same award on the LPGA Tour. He is the second-oldest player to be named top rookie behind Todd Hamilton, who was 39 when he won in 2004. The Rookie of the Year Award was established in 1990.

Cole, who has risen to a career-high No. 37 in the world rankings (he was No. 328 one year ago) continues to seek his first PGA Tour win. Genesis marked his seventh straight start this season. He now has five top-25 finishes and has already amassed $1.37 million this season although he will finally enjoy a week off as the Tour travels to Mexico this week.

“I always have high expectations for myself,” he said. “Maybe it’s not as big of a shock to other people this year versus last year but golf is a tough sport and anytime you have a good day it’s a good thing. It’s always a good feeling when you have a good day.”

Tom D’Angelo is a sports columnist and reporter at The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @tomdangelo44.

Did PGA Tour players botch their Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year winners? Let’s see what the numbers have to say

The races for both awards were close, and those who came up short can make the case they should’ve won.

Three days into the new year, and the PGA Tour finally announced its winners for the 2023 Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards ahead of its first event of 2024 later this week in Hawaii.

Scottie Scheffler won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the Player of the Year for the second consecutive season while Eric Cole picked up the Arnold Palmer Award as the Rookie of the Year. Both had terrific seasons and were worthy of consideration, but should they have been the winners?

Below is a pair of tables for both awards with blind resumes for each. Let’s see what the numbers have to say for both honors.

Player of the Year

Player Wins Major finishes Runner-up Top 10 Top 25 Missed cuts Total events
Player 1 4 1-T50-T10-T2 2 10 13 1 20
Player 2 2 T10-T2-3-T23 2 17 21 0 23
Player 3 3 T7-T2-19-T13 1 9 18 0 23

Talk about two stellar seasons. Players 2 and 3 didn’t miss a cut and were more consistent with top 10 and top 25 finishes, though they did make three more starts. Player 2 was more consistent but didn’t win as much as Players 3 or 1 (who also bagged a major championship).

Nine players out of 10 would take Player 1’s season over Players 2 or 3. Winning matters more to these guys than just about anything. They don’t tee it up to simply compete and get in contention. That extra win for Player 3 might even trump the slightly more consistent year of Player 2.

Player 1 was Jon Rahm, Player 2 was Scheffler, and Player 3 was FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland, who claimed the last two playoff events of the season.

The players will catch some considerable flack for Rahm’s apparent slight, especially after the Spaniard recently took his talents to the rival LIV Golf. This also marks the second consecutive year the winner of the season-long FedEx Cup wasn’t the Player of the Year.

Rookie of the Year

Player Wins Runner-up Top 10 Top 25 Missed cuts Total events
Player 1 1 1 4 8 1 11
Player 2 0 2 7 14 10 37

These two contenders had considerably different seasons. Player 1 has a smaller body of work but holds a clear advantage with a win. He finished inside the top 10 in 36 percent of his starts and 73 percent of the time he was in the top 25. Comparatively, 19 percent of the time Player 2 was in the top 10, and 38 percent of his starts ended with top 25 finishes. Once again, the advantage goes to Player 1 (although Player 2 made three times the appearances).

If you didn’t figure it out just by seeing the stats, Player 1 was rising star Ludvig Aberg, while Player 2 was the award-winner Cole. Aberg was in college for more than half the Tour’s season, and his fewer appearances may have weighed him down in the eyes of his peers. That said, he played as often as he could and contended more than his counterpart.

All five players were worthy of consideration, but the numbers point to different outcomes.

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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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PGA Tour rookie of the year? And who was the comeback player of 2023? We’ve got thoughts

Ballots for PGA Tour awards for the year won’t be mailed out to players until December, but why wait?

The PGA Tour ended its 2023 season with the RSM Classic, the last of the fall events that don’t count in the FedEx Cup race. The new season, no longer using a wraparound season, will begin in January in Hawaii, with The American Express in La Quinta as the third event of the new season and the second full-field event of the year.

Ballots for PGA Tour awards for the year won’t be mailed out to players until December, with honors like player of the year and rookie of the year to be decided. But why wait that long, when we can just conjecture who will win some of the awards based on what we already know about the 2023 season?

So here’s a guess at who will walk away with one of the awards (not to mention one that is no longer handed out):

Candidates for PGA Tour Rookie of the Year for the 2022-23 season

Let’s take a look at some of the top candidates for the Arnold Palmer Award.

There were 28 rookies on the PGA Tour for the 2022-23 season, the same number that there were a year ago. It’s also the most since the Tour had 35 newbies for the 2011 season.

Two rookies won a Tour event this season: Nico Echavarria at the Puerto Rico Open and Vincent Norrman at the Barbasol Championship.

Of those 28, none made the 30-man field at the Tour Championship, the first time rookies were shut out of East Lake Golf Club since the 2020-21 season. Notably, there have never been more than two rookies in the season finale in the 17-year history of the FedEx Cup.

While plenty of these first-year players made some noise along the way this season, there can only be one Rookie of the Year. Players are still vying for the honor, as the FedEx Cup Fall series events count towards consideration.

There are three events left: the World Wide Technology Championship in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in Bermuda and the RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Georgia. Ballots for Rookie of the Year will be sent out after the RSM.

For now, let’s take a look at some of the top candidates for the Arnold Palmer Award with their FedEx Cup ranking in parentheses.

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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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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