Golf Writers Association votes Jon Rahm, Lilia Vu, Steve Stricker golfers of the year
The Golf Writers Association of America has made its choices for the major end-of-season awards. The PGA Tour is next on the tee.
The GWAA membership voted Masters champion Jon Rahm as the 2023 male golfer of the year. Rahm, who has bolted for the LIV Golf League, won four tournaments last season, but none after winning at Augusta National.
But he turned in a bravo performance at the Ryder Cup to help Europe beat the U.S. in Rome, going 3-0-2.
Rahm received 49 percent of the vote, FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland 33 percent and Players champion Scottie Scheffler 18 percent.
Lilia Vu, who won two majors, was the runaway winner for Female Player of the Year with 72 percent of the vote. Steve Stricker polled at 80 percent to win the Senior Player of the Year.
The PGA Tour members' picks will be revealed late Wednesday.
Hat’s on to Patrick Cantlay
Hat-Gate is over.
Patrick Cantlay, whose bare head resulted in all kinds of conspiracy theories the last time he played, at the Ryder Cup, will be wearing a hat this week at The Sentry because he’s got a sponsor: the First Responders Children’s Foundation.
Cantlay is in a partnership with the FRCF to raise money and awareness for the group, which was founded 22 years ago after 9-11. More than 800 children lost a parent who was a first responder that day and since then, the foundation has awarded 1,300 scholarships worth more than $3.8 million.
Cantlay and the FRCF are launching a fundraising campaign to aid first responder families impacted by the deadly wildfires across Hawaii in August, which obliterated a historic part of Lahaina and killed 100 people.
The Sentry starts Thursday at Kapalua, about 10 miles from Lahaina.
The group also will fund the Patrick Cantlay Scholarship, which will award four-year scholarships to first-responder children who aspire to become entrepreneurs.
“Supporting first responders, their families and the communities they serve is very important to me,” Cantlay said in a statement. “We look forward to spotlighting the vital contributions of first responders while also tending to the unique challenges that their children and families experience.”
Speculation had run rampant at the Ryder Cup that Cantlay wouldn’t wear a hat because he was dissatisfied that the U.S. and European players weren’t paid. Cantlay has denied that numerous times, saying he couldn’t find a USA hat that fit.
He told golf.com: “If I was to make a protest, everyone would know what I’m protesting, why I’m protesting and how I’m protesting. I would never, never do a silent protest.”
Scottie Scheffler begins year at No. 1
Scheffler is the world’s No. 1 ranked player entering the 2024 season. If he ends it in that spot it will be the first time since Tiger Woods in 2009.
Woods started and finished No. 1 in the world seven times. Only two others did that, Nick Faldo (in 1993) and Greg Norman (1996). The rankings began in 1986.
Scheffler’s WGR index is 10.03. Rory McIlroy is second at 8.63 and Rahm is third at 7.6927. Rahm presumably will start losing points because he’s under suspension from the PGA Tour for joining LIV Golf and the WGR committee ruled late last year that LIV events will not be eligible for ranking points because of its 54-hole format and no open qualifying process into each event.
When do other pro tours begin?
The next opening week will be Jan. 14-17, when the Korn Ferry Tour plays the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic in the Bahamas, at Sandals Emerald Bay.
The LPGA and PGA Tour Champions will both start the same week. The LPGA will play its Tournament of Champions at the Lake Nona Country Club in Orlando Jan. 18-21 and the Champions Tour starts Jan. 18-20 with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golf Club at Ka'upulehu-Kona, Hawaii.
The LIV Golf League starts Feb. 2-4 at the Mayakoba Resort in Mexico.
PGA TOUR
Event: The Sentry, Thursday-Sunday, Plantation Course at Kapalua, Hawaii.
At stake: $20 million purse ($3.6 million and 700 FedEx Cup points to the winner).
Defending champion: Jon Rahm
TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 6-10 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 4-8 p.m.).
Area players entered: Harris English, Brian Harman, J.T. Poston.
Notable: The PGA Tour opens its first calendar-year schedule since 2012 with the first of series of eight “Signature Events” that will bring purses of $20 and 700 FedEx Cup points. … The field of 59 are PGA Tour winners from 2023 and non-winners who finished among the top-50 in the FedEx Cup. ... Rahm shot 63 in the final round and beat Collin Morikawa by two shots. Rahm has signed with the LIV Golf League and is under PGA Tour suspension. … Leading the field are defending FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg and Jordan Spieth. ... Schauffele is making his seventh consecutive start at Kapalua, the longest of any active player in the field. Justin Thomas had eight starts in a row but did not qualify this year. ... The Tour stays in Hawaii for the Sony Open next week at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
ROAD TO THE PLAYERS
Dates: March 14-17.
Site: Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach.
Purse: $25 million ($4.5 million and 750 FedEx Cup points to the winner.
Days until the first round: 70.
Tour events until The Players: 11.
Notable: This will be the 50th Players Championship.
Players trivia: Tiger Woods is the most recent member of the World Golf Hall of Fame to win The Players (2013). Other Hall of Fame members to win are Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Greg Norman, Nick Price, Tom Kite, Sandy Lyle, Raymond Floyd, Lee Trevino, Lanny Wadkins and Jack Nicklaus.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Masters champion Jon Rahm named GWAA golfer of year over Viktor Hovland
