It’s time for the gongs they didn’t ask for! The Today’s Golfer (Alternative) Golf Awards 2024

GOLF’S PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

Who knew that chunking pitch shots could endear you to millions of viewers? Johnson Wagner has found his calling as golf’s great entertainer this year, offering real-time, relatable analysis on The Golf Channel while nervously laughing his way through his own battles with the yips. Those vulnerabilities were never more apparent than at Valhalla when the three-time PGA Tour winner chunked two chips and sculled another live on TV. None of it, he said, was ever part of the plan, though his redemption moment arrived four weeks later when Bryson gatecrashed his attempt to recreate his 50-yard bunker shot at Pinehurst. Wagner bladed his first effort over the green, but his next settled within a few feet of the cup – closer than the US Open champion had managed a few hours earlier. The celebration that followed – with Bryson and the trophy in situ – was one of the pictures of the season.

THEY COULDN’T WRITE IT AWARD

It always felt like it was going to take something extraordinary to throw Scottie Scheffler off his game. Enter Detective Bryan Gillis, who went beyond the call of duty by arresting and handcuffing the World No.1 outside Valhalla. Scheffler was booked and released from custody just in time to make his tee time at the PGA Championship, where he somehow carded a five-under 66 to the soundtrack of fans chanting ‘free Scottie’. He was later cleared of four criminal charges, including second-degree assault of a police officer, but our abiding memory was seeing Scheffler high-fiving a fan who had his mugshot printed on his T-shirt. We don’t remember Tiger ever doing that.

WINNER: Scottie Scheffler