Pros react to who ‘really deserves’ PGA Tour Player of the Year

Jon Rahm or Scottie Scheffler?

It’s the question on everyone’s mind, as the PGA Tour announced the winner of the Jack Nicklaus award for its 2023 Player of the Year.

Scheffler scooped the accolade for the second consecutive year, leaving a sour taste in the mouth of fans who award greater value to lifting titles.

The American was recognised by his fellow PGA Tour stars for his unwavering consistency, fending off Rahm and Viktor Hovland, despite only winning twice in the calendar year.

Rahm won four times, including the Masters, and while one pro admitted he ‘really deserves’ the award, others offered opinion by saying very little.

Wyndham Clark and Rory McIlroy were also nominated for the prize, in which Scheffler earned 38% of all votes.

In defending his WM Pheonix Open title and winning the Players championship, the 27-year-old recorded 13 top-fives and 17 top-tens in 23 starts.

Speaking at the Sentry, he said: “I guess this year they really appreciated my consistency.

Asked whether he would rather have his or Rahm’s year, Scheffler replied: “I’m very proud of the body of work that I put in, the consistency that I put in last year I’m very proud of.”

Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa were all posed the question in Hawaii, too, prompting some interesting reading.

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Rahm vs Scheffler – the pros react

Pablo Larrazabal: “Well… it’s not because I am Spanish, but The Masters champion Jon Rahm really deserves the 2023 Player of the Year on the PGA Tour.”

Xander Schauffele: “Yeah, I mean it’s a tricky one, when you look at consistency, amount of wins. Who was the low scoring average?

“So, that was probably a correlation there, I guess. But Jon won the Masters and he won four times. Scottie won twice,” added Schauffele, who did not cast a vote.

He said: “I think some people look at wins, some people look at majors, some people look at scoring average. I, honestly, couldn’t care less.”

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Collin Morikawa: How do you prioritize a stellar year? “Wins,” quipped the 26-year-old.

“If I was No. 1 in putting, it doesn’t mean anything if I’m not winning. If that’s all I cared about and that’s what I wanted to accomplish for the year, then yeah, but my goals aren’t set like that.

“I’ve said it since day one. I want to be a consistent player. What Scottie’s been doing is incredible, right? That’s what I want to get back to. I was close to doing that. That’s what I want to get to again.

“But wins, I mean, at the end of the year, you could miss 20 cuts and have one win or win a major and you’re like, my year might have been pretty s**t for 99 percent of it, but that 1 percent makes up for it.”

Patrick Cantlay: “I’ll tell you a story. I went over to Tiger’s house, I think to talk Ryder Cup after I had won Player of the Year, and it felt like a big deal to me at the time that I had got a Player of the Year, and they give you this little Jack Nicklaus bronze trophy.

“So, we’re walking through Tiger’s house and we’re in the basement and he’s got, like, 11 lined up right next to each other all in the corner of the basement, and I go, ‘Hey, I’m catching up’, and he looked at me and he goes, ‘You got a lot of work to do’.

Asked how much he value wins, Cantlay said: “A lot,” and agreed that is what he plays for.

He said: “You know, for me, it’s about winning tournaments… That’s what we’re out there trying to do and let the chips fall where they may, and the votes fall where they may.”

John Turnbull A graduate of the University of Stirling, John joined the bunkered team in 2023 as a Content Producer, with a responsibility for covering all breaking news, tour news, grassroots content and much more besides. A keen golfer, he plays the majority of his golf at Falkirk Golf Club. Top of his 'bucket list' is a round of Pebble Beach... ideally in the company of Gareth Bale.