Who do you think deserves the award this year? Unlike so many years during the Tiger Woods era, there is not a dominant player among the candidates. But I do think there is a clear favorite: Luke Donald.
Donald, at this point, gets my vote for 2011 PGA Tour Player of the Year. Will he get his peers' votes? (Remember that the PGA Tour award is based on a player vote. The PGA of America also gives a Player of the Year award based on a points formula.)
What about Haas? Very good year: He's seventh in money, 23rd in scoring average, had two runner-up finishes prior to winning the Tour Championship. And, of course, he's the FedEx Cup winner, although opinions about how much weight winning the FedEx Cup deserves will vary from fan to fan. Still, the Tour Championship is Haas' only win of the year.
Keegan Bradley deserves strong consideration. He's a 2-time winner this year, and one of those was a major - the 2011 PGA Championship. Bradley is the only one of the four majors champions to have multiple PGA Tour wins; he's the only Player of the Year candidate with a major. If Bradley can grab another win during the Fall Series, he becomes a much more formidable candidate. For now, in my view, he just ranks too low in the other important areas of consideration: Only 4 Top 10s, 13th on the money list, 32nd in scoring. Plus, Bradley missed 10 cuts this year. More than twice as many missed cuts as Top 10s.
Webb Simpson is strong in all the important categories: He shares the PGA Tour lead with two wins; has 10 Top 10 finishes; is second in money and second in scoring average. Like Bradley, if Simpson adds a third win during the Fall Series, that might get him the award.
But my pick is Donald. Yes, Donald has only one win, and one win isn't usually enough to get a golfer the PGA Tour Player of the Year award. Especially when that one win is not a major.
But Donald is the leading money winner (as of now), and by a wide margin leads the average-money-per-start stat. And he's going to win the scoring award by a wide margin. He has two seconds and two thirds.
Donald's biggest selling point, though, is his consistent excellence throughout the season. Donald finished in the Top 10 in 13 of his 18 starts on the PGA Tour in 2011. That's 72 percent of his starts finishing inside the Top 10.
How impressive is that? I went back 15 years checking the leaders in Top 10 finishes. And over the last 15 years, only one other golfer has had a season (with at least 10 starts) with a higher percentage of Top 10 finishes than Donald has in 2011. Right, Tiger Woods (Woods actually matched or bettered Donald seven times, with a best of 85 percent in 2000). But nodoby else in the past 15 years, not even Vijay Singh, can top Donald's Top 10 consistency this year.
Remember how consistent Matt Kuchar was last year? Seemed like he was in contention every week. But in 2010, Kuchar finished in the Top 10 only 42-percent of his starts.
You have to go back 18 years to find someone other than Tiger with a higher Top 10 percentage than Donald had in 2011. That was Greg Norman, who was in the Top 10 12 of 15 starts (80 percent) in 1993.
So that's why Donald is my pick, right now.
See also:
Past PGA Tour Players of the Year
Who Deserves 2011 PGA Tour Player of the Year Award? originally appeared on About.com Golf on Monday, September 26th, 2011 at 10:28:16.
Comments