Jon Rahm hints at surprise to be beaten by Scottie Scheffler to Player of the Year award

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Jon Rahm has hinted at his surprise that he was beaten to the PGA Tour Player of the Year prize by Scottie Scheffler.

Rahm had an incredible year on the PGA Tour in 2018, taking home four victories, including his second Major title at The Masters. Yet Scheffler defeated the Spaniard to take the Player of the Year award and become the first winner to claim the award twice in succession since Tiger Woods did it in 2005–07.

The American’s ball-striking numbers considerably outperformed those of any other player, making him statistically the best player of the year. But while the World No.1 had his biggest victory at the Players, he was victorious just twice overall, with Rahm winning four titles.

Because of this, it was surprising that Rahm did not win the prize as selected by PGA Tour players – and the 29-year-old has now spoken on the matter.

“Oh man, listen, Scottie had a fantastic year. I don’t want to take away anything from what he did, but historically, hardware is what’s won basically the player of the year,” he said, appearing on the Jim Rome Show.

“The year Patrick Cantlay won, I was basically the more consistent player, in 2021, had a major, I think I had 16 top-10s that year and I fully understood why Patrick won it.

“It’s just maybe this year because of his high level of ball-striking, [the voters] decided to go in a different direction, but at the end of the day, it’s well earned.”

In addition to being voted Player of the Year, Scheffler received the Byron Nelson Award for having the season’s best scoring average; his 68.63 is the lowest scoring average ever by a player other than Tiger Woods, who has the top six lowest averages in history.

“Obviously an honor to receive the award,” Scheffler said when he was handed the awards at The Sentry in Hawaii, which opened the 2024 season.

“Anything that you receive voted on by your peers is very special to me and being able to go home with this trophy two years in a row now is very special,” He added.

“I think the body of work I put in last year with the consistency and finishing top most of the weeks that I played I was very proud of that consistency.”

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