Penton: PGA Tour’s Player of the Year will be . . . ?
By Bruce Penton
It was virtually owned by Tiger Woods for years and a Scottie Scheffler foregone conclusion for the past couple of seasons, but this year, there might not be a clearcut favourite for the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year award.
It could indeed be Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked player in the world and the Tour’s leading money winner. But the 2026 knock against the 30-year-old Texan is that he won only one tournament during the regular season — and that was back in January at the American Express championship. He was a Top 10 machine, and finally won his second event of 2026 when he romped to an eight-stroke victory in the first playoff event, but his lack of regular-season dominance has opened the door for a few other players to be considered for POY.
Four other names are solidly in the mix. Wyndham Clark is a three-time winner, including the U.S. Open and a playoff win, while Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup also won three times. Fitzpatrick’s most memorable win came at the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head when he defeated Scheffler in a playoff. Gotterup, meanwhile, has been the Tour’s breakout player of the year, winning at the Sony Open in Hawaii, the Phoenix Open and the John Deere Classic, after finishing 28th on the Tour’s money list in 2025.
Rory McIlroy is almost always a contender and 2026 is no different, although he would be considered a long shot for the award. He won the Masters for the second year in a row and was sixth on the money list despite playing only 11 events. The only other possibility would be Cameron Young, whose win at the Players was one of his two titles. He also finished second in money winnings during the regular season.
So who will win?
Ho hum, it will probably be Scheffler. Despite winning only twice, he had 12 top-10 finishes in 18 starts, missed only one cut all year and was the tour’s leading money winner. Should he go on to win the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup, his crowning would be a slam dunk.
Meanwhile, the presence of Canadian golfers on the No. 1 tour in the world continues to grow. A couple of newbies — Sudarshan Yellamaraju, who spent much of his youth in Winnipeg, and Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart — made significant inroads, with Yellamaraju finishing 56th on the tour money list with $2.5 million, thanks primarily to his fifth-place finish at the Players, worth $925,000 in prize money. Ewart shocked the golf world last December by finishing first at the Tour’s Qualifying School, which offered full playing privileges on the Tour to the top five finishers. Ewart went on to bank $1,036,000 during the regular season and place 111th overall.
Canada’s other Tour players — Corey Conners, Nick Taylor, Mackenzie Hughes, Taylor Pendrith, Adam Hadwiin, Adam Svensson and Ben Silverman — all had varying levels of success, but only Conners and Taylor joined Yellamaraju in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Jack Finarelli on his sportscurmudgeon.com site: “Quarterback Bobby Layne of Detroit Lions was traded to the Steelers in 1957 and Layne said the Lions would not win another championship for the next 50 years as a result of that decision. That streak is now entering its 68th NFL season.”
Headline at the onion.com: “Manager Calls Bullpen Just To Say Hi”
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Tampa Bay Rays just became the second East Coast team in major league history to go 9-0 on a West Coast trip. Tampa politicians will likely celebrate by delaying a vote on the Rays’ proposed new stadium by another few months.”
Headline at TheBeaverton.com: “Nation’s sports franchises mark Pride Month with the annual closing of the comment section”
Brendon Elliott, PGA of America professional: “LIV Golf entered the world with a trumpet blast. The version we were sold appears to be leaving through a side door.”
Mike Bianchi again: “The Heisman Trophy will add fan voting to its selection process in 2026. What a great idea! After all, everybody knows that college football fans are famously calm, objective people.”
Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: “Watching Serena and Venus Williams play tennis now is like listening to Paul McCartney sing these days. You know they were once great. You know they aren’t any longer."
Another one from Bianchi: "LIV Golf has cancelled its last tournament of the season, where its championship was supposed to be determined. The good news is, their fans took it well. Both of them.”
Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “Los Angeles Dodgers just put closer Edwin Diaz on injured list because of inflammation in the right side of his neck. Probably caused by Diaz turning around so often to see where the balls hit off him were going.”
Greg Cote of the Miami Herald: “Watching the Dodgers of all teams land Tarik Skubal was like finding out the winner of last night’s Powerball lottery was Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.”
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca