Tag: player of the year

Alabama commit Ryan Williams named as Alabama’s 2022 Gatorade Player of the Year

2025 wide receiver and Alabama commit Ryan Williams was named the 2022 Gatorade Player of the Year!

Alabama commit 2025 wide receiver Ryan Williams was recently announced as the recipient of Alabama’s 2022 Gatorade Player of the Year. The last Alabama player to win the award was safety Kristian Story who won the award in 2019.

Williams had a stellar sophomore season at Saraland High School. He helped lead his team to win a state title this season against Mountain Brook. As a sophomore, he hauled in 88 receptions for 1,641 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns. Along with that, he also had 57 carries for 700 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns.

By winning the award for the state of Alabama, he will now have the opportunity to win the National Gatorade Player of the Year as well. The award will be given to the best high school athlete at the end of this month.

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow Williams’ high school career as well as Alabama football recruiting.

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Here are the golfers who won the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2022 Player and Rookie of the Year awards

Justin Suh secured Player of the Year over Carl Yuan and Taylor Montgomery.

The future of the PGA Tour is bright.

Look no further than Justin Suh, who Wednesday was tabbed the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year. Suh won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship for his first professional victory, and he also had 10 top-10 finishes in 24 starts last season.

In a vote by fellow Korn Ferry players, Suh secured the Player of the Year distinction over Carl Yuan and Taylor Montgomery, who were fellow finalists. Suh finished No. 1 on both the Korn Ferry’s season-long and Finals Eligibility Points Lists, joining Scottie Scheffler (2019) and Chesson Hadley (2017) as the only players in history to win both points lists.

He finished inside the top 20 in 16 of his final 20 starts.

By sweeping the No. 1 spots on both Eligibility Points Lists, Suh has fully exempt status for the 2022-23 Tour season, an exemption for the 2023 Players Championship and, for the first time in history, an exemption for the 2023 U.S. Open.

S.H. Kim was named Rookie of the Year, and he had a strong season, finishing in the top three thrice in his first seven starts. In 22 starts, he recorded nine top 25s.

Kim earned membership by playing his way through the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament, ultimately finishing T-39 during final stage qualifying to earn guaranteed starts.

On the PGA Tour this season, Suh’s best finish is T-29 at the CJ Cup in South Carolina, and Kim tallied a fourth-place finish at the Shriners Children’s Open.

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2022 Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown kicks off year-end rush for Player of the Year points

The Sewailo Course at Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona, plays host to some of the best senior amateur golfers in the world beginning November 2nd.

The Sewailo Course at beautiful Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona, plays host to some of the best senior amateur golfers in the world beginning November 2nd. The 2022 Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown tees off on Wednesday with players beginning to make their final pushes for their chance at Golfweek Player of the Year honors.

With just three events remaining for this year’s POY title, the race is tight between No. 1 Rusty Strawn and No. 2 Kevin VandenBerg. With Strawn not in the field in Tucson, VandenBerg can take a bite out of the 1,930 points that separate the two men.

As the only player within nearly 4,000 points of Strawn, VandenBerg is mathematically the only challenger that can overtake Golfweek’s No. 1 as the season ticks down. Nonetheless, players inside the top 10 are all jockeying for strong finishes to gain momentum heading into the 2023 POY race.

No. 7 ranked Steve Maddalena is the next highest-ranked player in the field this week. A first-place finish this week would catapult him all the way to the No. 4 spot thanks to the 1,200 POY points that come with a win.

While it won’t put him close enough to challenge Strawn, Maddalena would most certainly use the late-season push as a building block for next season.

The field also includes Craig Larson, who went wire-to-wire in his victory back in late September.

In all, four different age divisions will duke it out over 54 holes in the desert. Four new champions will be crowned with winners being invited to the year-end Golfweek Tournament of Champions.

If you want to play elite golf courses across the country against some of the best senior amateurs in the world, check out Golfweek’s events schedule. There’s still time to register for the three remaining events that round out the calendar year. The Golfweek Player of the Year Classic in January kicks off the 2023 race for Player of the Year honors. We hope you join us!

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Best Player? Biggest Disappointment? Best Moment? Arkansas’ football midseason awards

KJ Jefferson is Arkansas’ clear MVP. You’re wrong if you think otherwise.

Well, you win some, you lose some.

No, literally. Arkansas has lost three games and won three games at the midway point of the 2022 football season. If you’ve been a regular around here, you’ll know that’s the record the Hogs were predicted to have by Razorbacks Wire editor E. Wayne before the season.

The way its happened – predicted or not – has caused distress among those both inside and outside of the program. With a road game at BYU on Saturday to start the back-half of the season, everything is on the table for the Arkansas and coach Sam Pittman. A fourth straight loss would be devastating ahead of a bye week and could, in theory, lead to changes.

But that’s ahead of us. For a moment, just a brief moment, let’s look behind. Let’s pick Arkansas’ offensive and defensive players of the year, the biggest offensive and defensive plays of the year, the team’s best unit so far this season and – sorry, but it has to go to someone – the biggest disappointment of the year.

Agree? Disagree? Let us know.

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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Kevin VandenBerg, Steve Maddalena, others take advantage of moving day at Golfweek Senior National Championship

The 2022 Golfweek Senior National Championship leaderboard looks like it could be a preview of what’s to come at Brookline this weekend. The East Course at Grandover Resort in Greensboro, North Carolina, is playing tough for some of the best senior …

The 2022 Golfweek Senior National Championship leaderboard looks like it could be a preview of what’s to come at Brookline this weekend.

The East Course at Grandover Resort in Greensboro, North Carolina, is playing tough for some of the best senior amateurs in the country this week. A total of 33 golfers over four different age divisions have teed it up this week with just one man still in red numbers two-thirds of the way through the championship. 

Super legend John Blank remains the overall leader at 1 under after a second-round 73. Chalking up four bogeys in his first five holes, Blank got his feet underneath him with his first par of the day coming on the par 5 6th. Regaining his senses, Blank went 2 under through his final 13 holes, resulting in a seven-shot lead in the Super Legend division.

The young guns flexed their muscles as the cream of the crop rose back to the top of the leaderboard in the senior division. Golfweek No. 2 Kevin VandenBerg trailed by six heading into moving day. 

 “I never quit,” VandenBerg told Golfweek. “If I tee it up it doesn’t matter what position I’m in. I feel like I have the game to make a run for the title.”

It wasn’t easy for the Michigander. With five bogeys on his card on the day, VandenBerg clawed and chipped away at the deficit thanks to a back-nine 2-under 34. He now sits atop the leaderboard in a two-way tie for first at 5 over alongside Steve Maddalena.

Maddalena, a fellow Michigander, won’t make it easy for VandenBerg to run away with the victory. A three-time Michigan Amateur winner and a member of the Golf Association of Michigan Hall of Fame (Class of 2007), Maddalena has plenty of game to match VandenBerg’s experience on the Golfweek stage.

The two share a lead at 5 over with round one leader Walker Taylor hot on their heels at 6 over. Guy Child and Larry Nunez round out the top five at 8 over and 11 over, respectively.

In the super senior division, the four-man flight is a three-man race with Larry Vaughan and Tim Vigotsky looking to track down Stephen Fox, who followed up his opening 1 over with an even-par 72.

Vigotsky earned low-round of the day honors with a 1-under 71, good not just for his age division, but the entire field. He now sits just one back of Fox at 2 over for the week and Vaughan lurks stage left at 4 over for the tournament.

Another dual will take place in the Legends division as Pete Allen and Charley Yandell have matched each other through 36 holes at 6 over. In third place, Bev Hargraves looks to apply some pressure as he trails by just three strokes.

Set with the difficult task of chasing down John Blank in the Super Legend division is Barry Flaer. After rounds of 77 and 73, Flaer will need to continue to improve his score in order to make up the seven-stroke deficit that lies between him and Blank.

Four champions will be crowned following Wednesday’s action with the winner of the senior division earning himself 1,200 Player of the Year points.

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First-ever Golfweek Senior National has attracted top amateurs to North Carolina

The Golfweek Senior National will be a pivotal tournament towards crowning the 2022 champion.

Top senior amateurs from around the country are in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the inaugural Golfweek Senior National.

Designed by two-time major champion David Graham and his build partner Gary Panks, Grandover Resort will play host to the first-ever Golfweek Senior National, June 13-15. The Player of the Year race is heating up too, with 1,200 points heading towards the winner’s bankroll when it’s all said and done.

Among those in the field is Golfweek’s No. 2 senior amateur Kevin VandenBerg. With No. 1 Rusty Strawn not playing this week, VandenBerg has an opportunity to take over the top spot as he sits just 350 points out of first.

Nearing the halfway point in the year, the Golfweek Player of the Year standings has become a two-horse race. Third-place Allen Peake is separated from VandenBerg by more than 1,000 points. Matt Sughrue (No. 4) and Billy Mitchell (No. 5) round out the top 5.

Ninth-ranked Jerry Slagle can make big strides in his ranking, just like VandenBerg. A win would catapult Slagle into fourth place with over 2,900 points.

With both the summer temperatures and the Player of the Year race heating up, the Golfweek Senior National will be a pivotal tournament towards crowning the 2022 champion.

Arkansas sweeps SEC Softball Awards

The SEC Coach, Player, and Pitcher of the Year all reside in Fayetteville, as well as six first-team all-SEC selections.

The regular-season Southeastern Conference softball champions were well represented on the league’s season softball awards list.

The coach, player, and pitcher of the year in the SEC all reside in Fayetteville, as well as six first-team all-SEC members, the league announced Friday.

Head Coach [autotag]Courtney Diefel[/autotag] takes home SEC Coach of the Year, while transfers [autotag]Chenise Delce[/autotag] and [autotag]KB Sides[/autotag] win SEC Pitcher and Player of the Year respectively. Six players were named all-SEC, with a seventh player named to the second team. Two athletes were also named to the all-defensive team as well.

It has been a season to remember for Arkansas, who won their second straight SEC regular-season crown, their first outright championship. The Razorbacks won all eight SEC series on the season, and finished the regular season with a 41-9 record.

Golfweek Senior Division national championship up for grabs at Desert Willow Golf Resort

Some of the best senior amateurs tee it up March 27-29 at the Firecliff Course at Desert Willow Golf Club in Palm Desert, California.

Some of the best senior amateurs will tee it up March 27-29 at the Firecliff Course at Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert, California.

The Firecliff Course made the Golfweek Top 20 list of the best courses you can play in California.

The 2022 installment will feature yet another who’s who in the senior amateur game. The usual suspects will be there: Jerry Gunthorpe, Billy Mitchell, Rich Bucker, etc. But the 1,200 Golfweek Player of the Year points that are up for grabs have brought players from every corner of the United States to fill out the rest of the 84-man field. This tournament is certified by the USGA and R&A as a WAGR counting tournament with the top-25 in the WAGR ranking receiving exemptions into the U.S. Senior Amateur to be held at the Kittansett Club in Marion, Mass.

With the limited field, just one age division is in play this week. The 55-plus-year-old field will navigate its way through the challenging but fair Firecliff Course native areas, water features, and over 100 waste bunkers.

Kevin VandenBerg looks to extend his points lead over Rusty Strawn who is not in the field this week. Seventh-ranked Richard Kerper is the next top-10 player in the field who can make a big jump in the Golfweek Senior Amateur Rankings.

A winner will be crowned on the 29th with 1,200 points accompanying their name as the first quarter of the Senior Player of the Year race comes to a close in April.

Billy Mitchell storms up leaderboard to take lead at Golfweek Player of the Year Classic

“I guessed right more often than I didn’t. Probably the most solid round I played in a while.”

Tampa Palms Country Club in Tampa, Florida is playing host to some of the best amateur senior players in the world this week. With four age groups teeing it up to kick off the Golfweek Player of the Year race, 18 holes separate four players from 1,000 points which will give them quite a head start over their peers vying for Player of the Year honors.

In the senior division, first-round co-leader Rusty Strawn stumbled down the back nine which included an 8 on the par-4 16th to go from the solo lead to a tie for seventh place. Rising from the pack today was Atlanta’s Billy Mitchell.

“[I] made birdie on 1 which is kind of a hole that doesn’t fit my eye,” Mitchell told Golfweek after his round. “It’s a hard driving hole to start out on.”

The birdie kick started a fantastic front nine for Mitchell who went out in 32 at four under par.

It wasn’t until the par-3 13th, where Mitchell missed his lone green of the day, where he also made his lone bogey of the round.

“I kind of got confused with the wind, hit in the bunker, short sided myself and made bogey,” Mitchell said. “I guessed right more often than I didn’t. Probably the most solid round I played in a while.”

Mitchell leads by three shots over round one co-leader Miles McConnell, who is even for the tournament. Three more golfers are within seven shots of Mitchell who tees off at 11:50 a.m. ET in the final round.

Day 1 Super Senior leader Steve Humphrey was disqualified after signing an incorrect scorecard, opening the door for Georgia’s Mark Benefield. Improving on his opening round of 78 with a 2-over 74, good for a three shot lead over Duke Delcher. Four more golfers trail by seven shots or less heading into Tuesday’s final round.

Pete Allen maintained his four stroke lead in the Legends flight. The North Carolinian went 73-77 for a 6-over total with 18 holes separating him from claiming the Player of the Year Classic. Don Marsh leads the pack that will be on the hunt to chase Allen down.

Super Legend Dennis Adkins slid past 2021 Player of the Year Walt Martin and round 1 leader Jim Pfrogner for a two shot lead heading into the final round. Adkins’ 1-over 73 is the lowest score of the tournament out of the Super Legends division so far. He will look to hold off Martin and Pfrogner as well as G.M. Bingman who trails by six.

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