With nine wins, Scottie Scheffler is voted player of the year

Seven tour wins, the Olympic gold and season-ending honours meant US golfer Scottie Scheffler faced no opposition in votes gained for the Player of the Year award.

The world’s top-ranked golfer by some distance, Scottie Scheffler, was earlier this week declared winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award as the PGA Tour Player of the Year for the 2024 season. Scheffler, who won seven Tour events in 2024, gold at the Paris Olympics and the season-long FedEx Cup title, is the first after Tiger Woods did so from 2005 to 2007, to win Player of the Year honours for three seasons in a row.

Scheffler also joined Woods as the only players to win the award in three consecutive seasons since it was established in 1990, the PGA Tour said. Woods won Player of the Year in consecutive seasons for five straight years from 1999 to 2003 and then again from 2005 to 2007.

Scheffler (2022, 2023, 2024), Woods (11 times, most recently in 2013) and McIlroy (2012, 2014, 2019) are the only players to win the award three or more times. Since the inception of the FedEx Cup in 2007, nine players have won the FedEx Cup and Player of the Year in the same season.

“On behalf of the PGA Tour, congratulations to Scottie Scheffler on a truly historic season, capped off with his first FedEx Cup title and a third consecutive Jack Nicklaus Award as Player of the Year,” said Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, according to a statement.

“Scottie took on challenges from the best players in the world on the biggest stages all season, and being honoured as Player of the Year is the ultimate sign of respect from his peers.”

Player of the Year is determined by a member vote, with Tour members who played in at least 15 events during the 2024 season eligible to vote. The voting period ran from November 25 through December 4 and Scheffler received 91 percent of the vote, far ahead of the two other nominees, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy.

Scheffler won the FedEx Cup for the first time on the strength of seven titles in 2024, bringing his career total to 13 wins. He became the first player to successfully defend his title at the Players Championship and won the Masters Tournament for the second time (2022, 2024), becoming the first player to win the Players, a major and the FedEx Cup in the same season.

Besides the three victories above, he added four titles at Signature Events, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, the RBC Heritage, the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and the Travelers Championship.

Scheffler’s season is the first time a player won seven or more times in a single season since Woods in 2007. He also maintained the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking, a position he has occupied since May 21, 2023, now 82 weeks in a row. He also had a Tour-topping 16 top-10s in 19 starts and did not miss a cut.

During the course of 2024, Scheffler won the gold medal on his Olympic debut, and was part of the victorious US team at the Presidents Cup in Montreal, Canada. During the Challenge Season’s unofficial events, he successfully defended his title at the Hero World Challenge, winning the Woods-hosted event by six strokes at the Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas last week.

For the second consecutive season, Scheffler also received the Byron Nelson Award for recording the lowest Scoring Average of 68.65 on Tour in 2024.