UPSET or NO? Rory McIlroy Wins PGA TOUR Player Of The Year

With the 2019 PGA TOUR season officially concluded, this is the time of year where all of the accolades start to come out. And the winner of perhaps the biggest award of the season may come as a shock to some.

It was announced earlier on Wednesday that the PGA TOUR Player of the Year would be awarded to Rory McIlroy. McIlroy had a fantastic season, having a ridiculous 14 top-10 finishes on the circuit this year, which included three wins. He also won the Byron Nelson Award for the third time, given to the player with the best-adjusted scoring average.

Rory was honored and extremely happy to win the award. “I’m very humbled and very honored,” McIlroy said. “It validates some of the decisions I made to start the year, and I couldn’t be more proud.” It is certainly an award well deserved for Rory, especially since he is the winner based on the voting of his own peers rather than the PGA of America.

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Speaking of the PGA of America, their choice for the Player of the Year Award was Brooks Koepka, leaving many stunned that Rory took home this title. It is only the third time that the PGA of America’s choice and the players’ choice for the Player of the Year Award was given to two different players since the conception of both awards in the early 1990s.

I think the decision by the players to award McIlroy this honor also speaks volumes to how they perceive great accomplishment as compared to the PGA of America. Koepka won his award for his stellar play in this year’s major championships while McIlroy’s performance was more steady throughout the entire season. As Rory put it, it’s good to see that more matters to players than simply four weeks of the season.

This decision is certain to send some shockwaves throughout the PGA TOUR community but honestly, both of these players are deserving of the honor. And the fact that each won one of the awards shows that golf has much more parity than it ever has before. And that’s something that I think is good for the game moving forward.

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