Generally, in recent years past, the race for PGA Tour
Player of the Year honors is suited more for idle conversation than
full-fledged barstool debate. Tiger Woods usually has a major among
his several wins, and appears to be a no-brainer choice.
This year, though, Woods has a Tour-high four wins, but no majors,
and the list of challengers is long and impressive.
Heading into the PGA Championship, rock-solid cases could be made
for major champions Mike Weir and Jim Furyk, followed by Vijay Singh,
Kenny Perry and Davis Love III in no particular order, and possibly
Ernie Els.
Not that it is a requirement, but a Player of the Year candidate
strengthens his case with a major and/or multiple wins. Being the leading
money winner is not as much of a factor, as it's generally a by-product
of winning.
Love believes his three-win season, which includes The Players Championship,
has him in contention, but the lack of a major hurts him and several
other contenders.
"Well, [winning Player of the Year] was one of my goals at the start
of the year," he said. "So I think, realistically, if I don't win the
PGA, I can't win the Player of the Year.
"I didn't have a good Masters
or U.S. Open. So I think I've got to win the PGA, which is part of
my plan anyway. Obviously, there's a
lot of guys playing very, very well. Kenny Perry wins the PGA, he's
up there for Player of the Year. Obviously Mike Weir and Jim Furyk.
But I think you have to have a major to separate yourself. I've got
the fifth major, so probably one of the big four would probably cement
it for me. That would be the clearest case maybe. But I need to win
some more and PGA is one of them."
Using Love's rationale, the race appears to be between Weir and Furyk.
Here's a look at how the two players stack up.
Furyk: Has 19 starts, two wins, four top-three and 13 top-10 finishes.
Has $4,401,313 in earnings. Statistically, he ranks No. 1 on Tour in
scoring average at 69.19 and No. 7 in the All-Around ranking. In the
majors, Furyk has finished fourth, first and missed the cut.
Furyk probably should have won a couple of more tournaments and did
lose in a playoff at the Ford Championship at Doral.
Weir: Has 14 starts, three wins, seven top-three and eight top-10
finishes. Has $4,321,722 in earnings. Statistically, he ranks No. 4
on Tour in scoring average at 69.57 and No. 6 in the All-Around ranking.
In the majors, Weir has finished first, third and 28th.
Weir has been somewhat off the radar since winning the Masters with
just five starts, but three were third-place finishes.
And then there are the rest ...
What, on the surface at least, hurts Woods' case is this presumption
that he is in a slump. In 12 starts, he has four wins, five top-three
and eight top-10 finishes. He has finished no lower than 20th all season,
that being at the U.S. Open. He also ranks No. 1 in the All-Around
ranking.
Love does have the three wins and six top-10 finishes in 14 starts,
but the missed cut at the U.S. Open does not help his cause, just as
Furyk's British Open missed cut takes some points off his resume. He
needs a major or three more wins.
Perry has entered the race like a meteor with three wins and seven
top-10 finishes in his last seven starts. He also had a tie for second
at Bay Hill and a fifth-place finish at the Ford Championship. What
costs Perry is seven finishes outside the top-25 and two missed cuts
prior to his blistering run. Needs to keep playing - and winning -
like he has the past two months.
Singh has two wins, nine top-10 finishes, including two in majors.
One of Singh's two wins came at a relatively weak Phoenix Open. A major
is about the only thing that could leap Singh over the rest.
Ernie Els won the first two weeks of the season, but little has been
shown. A PGA brings him back to the forefront.
Heading into the PGA Championship, Casual Friday votes for Furyk.
But should Weir, Furyk or any of the other top contenders not win
the PGA, and Woods finishes the season with wins seven times to outdistance
himself by three wins from his nearest competitor in that category,
he will emerge as the top player.
DOUBLE CLICK
www.pgatour.com/stats/index_r.html
A case for Player of the Year could be made for up to five or six
players. Any research for arguments would have to start here.
