There is an interesting dynamic emerging in the golf world that is not getting much play in the media. The PGA Tour season is over, yet there is no definitive Player of the Year candidate. So you may be asking yourself, who will it be?
Tiger Woods started off the year with a bang. Yet, Tiger's roar was silenced after the US Open due to season-ending knee surgery.
Padraig Harrington made a splash into the waters of golf stardom by repeating at the British Open and following up that victory with a subsequent major triumph at the PGA Championship.
Vijay Singh, on the other hand, started off slow but caught on fire late in the season, hailing victorious at the Bridgestone Invitational and going on to win the FedEx Cup in relatively easy fashion.
So I've narrowed down the field to three finalists. Here is the case for each of them.
First off, Tiger Woods. Winning the Buick Invitational and the World Match Play in convincing fashion, it seemed like a formality.
After Tiger sunk a 20-foot slider on the 72nd hole at Bay Hill to win, it then seemed that the unthinkable was possible. In Tiger-like fashion, he followed up that performance with perhaps the greatest sports performance so far this decade at the US Open. A putt for the ages on the 18th hole on Sunday propelled him into a playoff with Rocco Mediate, which he ultimately won.
Unfortunately for Tiger, his season would end shortly there after due to knee surgery.
Then there was Padraig Harrington. Clutch putting was the key to both of his victories at the British Open and the PGA Championship. Two major championships in a single season usually solidifies Player of the Year honors. Mark O' Meara in 1998 comes to mind.
The problem with Harrington was the fact that he failed to capitalize on his major triumphs. He only managed four other top-10 finishes in the 13 other events he played for the year. Not to mention, he was hardly a factor in any of the playoff tournaments, leaving him 50th in the points tally.
Vijay Singh got off to a rough start this year by his standards, posting only two runner-up finishes at Pebble Beach and Doral. Finally, he reached the winner's circle at the WGC-Bridgestone and continued that momentum by winning the Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Those last two victories, coming in the first two playoff events, allowed Singh to run away with the FedEx Cup, seemingly clinching the cup before the Tour Championship began. Mr. Singh also managed to edge out Tiger for the money title. Singh played in 23 events, compared to Tiger's six appearances.
With that, I have to give the nod to Tiger. A courageous win at the US Open, combined with three other victories, not to mention a runner up at The Masters, left no doubt in anyone's mind that he is the most dominant athlete on the planet. It is for that reason that my Player of the Year for 2008 is Tiger Woods.
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about 1 month ago
Good article Joe and you make many very good points. I also wrote an article on this subject a little while back http://bleacherreport.com/articles/74191-2008-pga-tour-award-series-player-of-the-year
I happened to go a different direction though, I chose Padraig Harrington as player of the year.
Woods had an incredible start to the year. I have a stat listed in my article, can't remember the exact number, but I think it was something like 60% of the tournaments he entered on 2008 he won, he also didn't finish outside of the top-10 once in 2008, not to mention the small fact that he won the US Open on one leg.
However, Majors is what it is all about, and Harrington's back-to-back win at the British Open and PGA Championship makes him the first player (other than Woods) to win two majors in one year since Mark O'Meara.
I am a person that happens to think we put too much emphasis on the majors (majors are the most important wins but I also think that many times we overlook players who have won many, many tournaments simply because their record is not great int he majors), however winning back-to-back majors is some feat by anyone's standards.
It could go definitely go either way though, Tiger's 2008 stats were rediculously good, you'd probably have to go back to the days of Byron Nelson to find a better winning percentage than Tiger had from the end of 07 to the start of 08'.
Nice article! Glad that we have you as a new contributor to the golf section!
from about 1 month ago
Martin, once again thanks for the feedback. I look forward to contributing more to the golf section, especially with the new Race to Dubai and the season starting up again in '09. I'll have to check out your article on the topic as well. It took a minute for me to decide on the final verdict of the article, but for me it came down to overall performance. What Tiger achieved in just six or so events was legendary even by his standards, and quite frankly Padraig was rather inconsistent outside of the majors. I have to agree though that winning back to back majors is an incredible feat, and deserves recognition, and if he would have performed well during the FedEx cup, I might have changed my mind. Vijay on the other hand waited until the end of the season to get going. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top. My guess is Tiger
about 1 month ago
Good take, Joe. It is truly a tough decision between Harrington and Woods this year. It's going to be a close call. I'm completely torn. I can't vote against a guy who won two majors and I can't vote against a guy who finished 2nd at the Masters and won the US Open on one leg.
Martin, I understand your concern that overemphasis on majors isn't fair, but I like the fact that it makes the major tournaments more exciting. It's good to have 4 tournaments a year where so much status is on the line. It's all about getting it done under pressure. They can all hit great shots on the driving range.
from about 1 month ago
Hi Lou. I definitely agree with you think that majors should carry a lot more weight when analyzing the success of a player's year and career, however I think that sometimes we put to much emphasis on just the majors and not enough on the total number of wins a player has.
For example, Vijay Singh's 3 wins this year or Camilo Villegas' 2 wins in a row during the FedEx Cup are more impressive to me than Trevor Immelman catching fire for 4 days and winning the Masters.
Another example is that a guy like Billy Casper is almost never mentioned as one of the greatest golfers of all time, largely because he only won 3 majors during the course of his career. However, Casper has an incredible 51 PGA Tour wins. To me, winning on 51 seperate occasions is more impressive than getting hot during a major week and winning 3,4,5 of them.
I definitely think that majors should hold a lot more weight than the average PGA Tour event, however I think that sometimes we put too much weight solely on the number of major wins.
about 1 month ago
I agree on Immelman. I would vote for Singh and Villegas over Immelman this year. I would also have no problem ranking Caspar ahead of a Faldo or Ballesteros, who had more majors.
from about 1 month ago
Yeah, Immelman was a wash after the Masters. I would give some honorable mention though this year to guys like Kenny Perry and Sergio Garcia. The Casper and Ballesteros argument is a little bit tougher for me though. Maybe a slight edge to Casper. Also agree on the fact about the majors. I think it's great that we have four mini superbowls every year. There also should be some recognition though for those who do well in other tournaments.
about 1 month ago
Oh yeah. Sergio had a good year. The guy stormed up just about every leaderboard, won the Players, could have had a monster year if he had executed just a couple more shots. Nice to see him get the win last week. He's going to need a lot of confidence to get the "no-major" monkey off his back. You might want to check out my old post here.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/65770-why-i-hate-sergio-garcia
about 1 month ago
Vijay Singh...that late summer come back was beautiful and magical.
Sergio Garcia too, he achieved a couple of things in addition to having a great year, he learned to laugh at himself, or at least smile at the ironies of the game... even while he bumped up against them.
from about 1 month ago
I agree it was nice to see Vijay come on strong at the end, and it does seem that Sergio has matured. I stated earlier, he is that close ( Sergio that is) to breaking through and winning majors consistently. He just needs to win one big one in my opinion, and he will propel himself to greatness. We'll see though.
about 1 month ago
Well the polling is interesting so far. Happy Gilmore even got a vote for player of the year. I am somewhat surprised so far about the results.
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