Scottie Scheffler wanted to make it a runaway at The Players Championship.
And the fact that he dominated that week at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass was likely in his favor when his peers on the PGA Tour voted him the Jack Nicklaus Trophy for being the Tour's Player of the Year for the second season in a row.
"I think it's hard to say which one is better or worse," Scheffler said during a teleconference from Kapalua of his two seasons, highlighted in 2021-22 by winning his first major championship at The Masters, and 2022-23 when he won The Players, the WM Phoenix Open and finished first on the World Golf Rankings.
"Being able to win The Masters is obviously a tournament I've dreamt about winning for a long time, so 2022 was very special," he went on. "Then 2023, being able to go back into Phoenix and defend my title and winning The Players was another tournament I've dreamt of winning for a very long time. The consistency this year was very special, and I think I'm just really proud of how I played in 2022 and 2023."
Scheffler had 13 top-five finishes, 17 top-10s and did not miss a cut.
Tiger Woods was the last to win Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons (he won three in a row from 2005-2007).
"I was very proud of how I played most of last year," Scheffler said. "The consistency was very special to me. I'm very appreciative that the players voted for me to have this award. To be able to win this award two years in a row is truly special. Anytime you can be mentioned in the same breath with Tiger it's very special."
Scheffler is the third player in the last five years to be voted Player of the Year without having won a major championship. Patrick Cantlay (2020-21) and Rory McIlroy (2018-19) were the others.
Masters champion Jon Rahm, who has left the PGA Tour to play for the LIV Golf League, was voted player of the year by the Golf Writers Association of America.
Scheffler didn't win after The Players Championship, but he was in the mix almost every week. He was 10th in the Masters, tied for second in the PGA and was solo third in the U.S. Open, and added a fourth place in the WGC Match Play, a tie for fourth in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a third in The Memorial.
Scheffler is especially proud of winning The Players and stepping on the gas in the process with four rounds in the 60s and a final score of 17-under 271.
"I take a lot of pride in that from a tournament ... building up a lead and keeping it is not an easy thing to do out here," he said.
Scheffler had a five-shot lead after the 17th hole on Sunday and told his caddie, Ted Scott, he wanted to keep it that way.
Scheffler saved par from the right trees.
"I looked at Teddy and I said, 'Let's win this one by five,' and I ended up hitting it in the trees," Scheffler said. "I got it back in the fairway but made the nice putt for par. That's why you saw a little bit bigger of a celebration for me because I had kind of set that mini-goal on the tee to try to finish it off the right way. Being able to win by five instead of three just has a little bit of a different ring to it."
Also announced on Wednesday by the Tour was Eric Cole winning the Arnold Palmer Award as Rookie of the Year.
That came with a special kind of karma: 50 years ago, Cole's mother, Laura Baugh, was the LPGA Rookie of the Year. Cole, whose father was PGA Tour member Bobby Cole, also played with Palmer an estimated 40-50 times while growing up and then when he labored on mini-tours before getting his PGA Tour card at the age of 35.
Baugh is a teacher at The Palencia Club in St. Augustine.
"It's incredible, such a huge honor," Cole said. "I think there's a cool feeling for me winning this, it being called the Arnold Palmer Award and having a connection with Mr. Palmer growing up and being around him a little bit, and then also my mom winning the LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year exactly 50 years ago. It just seems almost hard to believe."
Cole was the only rookie to reach the BMW Championship, the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs and led all rookies in points, earnings and with six top-five finishes.
He also led the Tour with 554 birdies — 59 more than second-place Stephan Jaeger.
Cole had to weather some challenges at the beginning of the season and missed his first four cuts.
But he finished second at the Honda Classic after going into a playoff with Chris Kirk and capped the season off with four top-fives among his last five starts.
"It wasn't a great start to the PGA Tour season," he said. "My first four starts I missed the cut. I had COVID in Napa and I had my clubs stolen in Vegas. I had some weird things happen, so I didn't go into any kind of panic. My parents and older pros said that if you just stick with the game that gets you there, you can have success. I kind of just kept replaying that thought in my head."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: PGA Tour players vote Scottie Scheffler Player of the Year for second time
