When one player wins two of golf’s four major championships, it is usually very easy to identify the PGA Tour’s player of the year.
Column by John Feinstein
This year, though, it’s more complicated. When the players vote, Schauffele is not going to win the award. Scottie Scheffler will, after a season in which he won a major, a gold medal and six other tournaments. Players who have not won a major like to downplay their importance — and that’s most players, which is why there is little question Scheffler will win.
It should be noted that I am one of those people who believes a victory in a major is worth at least 10 times as much as any other victory. When you win a major, you are part of history. When you win another tournament, you make a lot of money.
Because the PGA Tour decided that the best way to combat LIV Golf is to throw as much money at players as possible, the money list today sounds like a game of Monopoly. Scheffler won $25 million this past weekend for not having the lowest score at the silly Tour Championship, pushing his earnings for the year past $60 million.
He can buy Park Place and Boardwalk as often as he likes. And have plenty of get-out-of-jail money left over — joke intended.
Scheffler had an extraordinary year. He won eight times — including the Olympics, which for some reason doesn’t count as an official tour victory. It’s ironic that the tour, which has bent itself into a pretzel trying to convince people that Olympic golf is a big deal, doesn’t count an Olympic gold medal as a win.
The tour would apparently rather spend its time trying to convince the world that the Players Championship is a major and promoting its absolutely ludicrous format for the Tour Championship. For the record: Both Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala had lower scores over four days than Scheffler, but the lead Scheffler started with — based on his season point total — allowed him to cruise to victory on the redesigned pitch-and-putt East Lake course.
Memo to the tour: If you want an event to be taken seriously, you can’t have three players shoot 20 under par or better. That’s okay in January at the Bob Hope Classic (or whatever it’s called now), but not for what is supposed to be some kind of season climax.
Back to Scheffler vs. Schauffele. By my (very unofficial) scoring system, a major is worth 10 points and a regular tour event, regardless of any “elevated” payout, is worth one. I’m willing to give the Olympics two points because I think the pressure coming down the stretch there is greater than at a regular tour event, though not close to major championship level.
So Scheffler finished with 18 points — one major victory (the Masters), six regular victories and the Olympics. We will never know how much the horrifically stupid arrest made by the Louisville police during the PGA Championship affected him that weekend. Scheffler finished tied for eighth, eight shots behind Schauffele — who shot 21 under to win. If the overzealous Louisville cops hadn’t arrested Scheffler (and put him in a cell and a jump suit), who knows how he would have played on the weekend?
That aside, Schauffele finished with 20 points under my system — just the two major victories.
Many of you will argue that Scheffler was the more consistent player — he was — and that his eight victories should count for more than Schauffele’s two majors.
Normally, I would argue vehemently with you, because I have watched players up close in the heat of a major’s closing holes and it is exponentially more tense than the closing holes of the 3M Open. The only thing in golf that compares to a major championship is the Ryder Cup.
This time though, I’m honestly not sure. If Scheffler had won eight tournaments and none was a major, he would have no chance in my mind — though all those players without major wins might still vote for him.
But he did win a major and the Olympics, so his victory will not outrage me. He is the best player in the world right now, although some of the comparisons to Tiger Woods are ridiculous.
At 28, Scheffler has won two majors. At 28, Woods had won eight. In July, some tried comparing Scheffler’s 2024 season to Woods in 2000. Woods won three majors in 2000 — including the U.S. Open by 15 shots and the British Open by eight. Anyone out there who thinks Scheffler will win 15 majors and 82 tournaments, raise your hand.
Scheffler’s a wonderful player who almost certainly will land in the Hall of Fame someday. But anyone who compares him to Woods is insane. The only player in history who can be compared to Woods is Jack Nicklaus. That doesn’t mean that Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson weren’t great, but they’re a rung below.
In 1998, I went to meet my family at the Jacksonville airport during the Players. Waiting at the gate, I ran into Tom Watson, who was meeting his son Michael, arriving on the same flight.
The first person off the plane was my then-4-year-old son Danny. I introduced him to Watson and said, “Mr. Watson is a great golfer.”
Danny looked at Tom and said, “Are you as good as Tiger Woods?”
Watson smiled and said, “Not even close.”
Woods had won exactly one major at that moment, but Watson knew.
What I don’t know is who deserves this year’s player of the year award. If I had a vote, I’d probably split it — which is a cop-out. But this year has been an exception. Maybe instead of the silly Tour Championship format, which feels like the richest member-guest in history, the tour could set up 36 holes of match play at Pebble Beach between Scheffler and Schauffele, with the winner named player of the year.
Now that I would watch.
