Scottie Scheffler, Lydia Ko, and Steven Alker awarded 2022 Player of the Year titles by Golf Writers Association of America
Scottie Scheffler, Lydia Ko, and Steven Alker won the Player of the Year award in their respective categories. The choices were made on the basis of voting by the members of the Golf Writers Association of America.
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Scottie Scheffler, Lydia Ko and Steven Alker have been voted 2022 Players of the Year in their respective divisions by the Golf Writers Association of America.
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Scottie Scheffler wins male Player of the Year
Scheffler, 26, won the Male Player of the Year by getting 49.2 % votes, beating the likes of Rory McIlroy and Cameron Smith. He had a fruitful 2022 where he won four titles, including The Masters. While McIlroy had success in three events last year, Smith's victories included the Open Championship and the Players.
Scheffler acknowledged the award stating that it was a great year for him and it was special to win the POY.
Scheffler, 26, earned 49.2% of first-place votes, winning over Rory McIlroy and Cam Smith.
“It was a great year,” Scheffler said. “To win an award like that, to be recognized as the best player for the year, is really special, and something I'll look back on in my career.”
Scheffler's PGA Tour victories include the WM Phoenix Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational, the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, and The Masters. The victory at Augusta National was his first major championship. He claimed the World No. 1 position at the end of the past season for all his accomplishments. In the FedEx Cup Playoffs, he was only second to Rory McIlroy.
Lydia Ko wins female Player of the Year
Lydia Ko won the Player of the Year in the female category. This is her second POY award after having won it previously in 2015. Ko is the only professional among the three to have won the award previously.
Ko, 25, received 79.5 percent of the votes to beat Minjee Lee and Atthaya Thitikul by a fair margin. The 2022 was a comeback year for Ko as she returned to the No. 1 position in the world rankings after winning three titles last year. The Kiwi star won the Gainbridge at Boca Rio, BMW Ladies Championship, and CME Group Tour Championship. She also posted the lowest scoring average in the LPGA, for which she won the Vare Trophy.
"What an amazing year 2022 turned out to be. So many cool things happened in my life, culminating in my wedding. While nothing could be more special than that, my golf was pretty good, too," Ko said in a release.
Steven Alker wins the Senior Player of the Year
This was Steven Alker's first full season on the Senior Tour. Alker, 51, claimed four victories in 2022, which included his first senior major at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. He also won the season-long Charles Schwab Cup. In his 23 starts, Alker finished in the top three in 13 of them.
Alker beat the other finalists, Padraig Harrington and Steve Stricker, by garnering 50.3 percent of the first-place ace votes.
Alker said that it was special to be on the same list with all the great names like Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, and Bernhard Langer.
"Look, the awards that come along with a season like that are amazing. It’s fantastic," said Alker. “Obviously, I had time to sit down just before Christmas and kind of think about really what I’d done. I’m pleased and proud of myself for the consistency that I had throughout the year. That was the big thing."