Golf's player of the year title should not go to who won most: Chamblee
Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley debate who should be named this year's player of the year. Chamblee builds a stats-based case for Scottie Scheffler, while McGinley likes his award recipient to be more of a winner.
Video Transcript
Clark now one of four multiple winners on tour this year.
Fitz, Goddrup, Cameron Young as well.
You factor in Scottie's statistical dominant strokes gained in all of that, and the fact that Rory could walk out of Birkdale as a double major winner this season and player of the year is wide open if he's settled here at Birkdale.
Brandel, let's start with Wyndham Clark.
You don't love him here.
Why?
Well, no, I don't.
Look, he's won a couple of major championships, two U.S.
Opens, but the, those golf courses that he won the U.S. Open on couldn't be more different than the test this week.
Those were 50, 60, in some cases, 80-yard-wide fairways.
I talked earlier in the show about distance from the edge of the fairway and well, Wyndham Clark is almost dead last, or he's trending towards dead last in distance from the edge of the fairway.
Big misses matter.
So when you look at Wyndham Clark's history in major championships, he's played in 19 of them.
He's missed almost half the cuts, nine times.
Other than the three top tens that he's got, obviously two of them are wins, his best next finish is 21st.
So I, I think he'll struggle around here.
And when I look at Wyndham Clark, yes, he's won a U.S. Open, and he's had a marvelous turnaround in his game, I wouldn't put him in that second spot to player of the year.
And I would argue with you, I think Scottie Scheffler has distanced himself.
I don't think it's a close- Hold on.
Distanced him- Yes distanced himself?
Yes.
Yes.
But some- it depends what you value, Brandel.
I mean, I, I understand statistically he's, and has been clearly the best player in the world.
But don't you put more value on, on Ws- I put- at the end, at the end of the day?
I put, I put more value on Ws, but I also don't necessarily put an exponential difference between Ws and second-place finishes, second-place finishes and third-place finishes.
Paulie?
So what I would say is I would say that player of the year in la- in the absence of a dominant performance is then more about consistency.
And I think it's analogous or not unlike the decathlon in the Olympics where you can actually in those 10 events not win any of them and win the decathlon.
Because you are so consistently good, you can do that.
And I would argue because there hasn't been a dominant performance this year, that's where we're at with- Right Scottie Scheffler.
And he would be, if it were a decathlon and the final part of the decathlon were a race, he would be 100 yards ahead.
Let's take the case of Matt Fitzpatrick.
A lot of people like Fitz.
If Fitz wins this week, and that's certainly a possibility, player of the year?
He was runner-up at The Players.
That would be a fourth win for Fitz.
I get one of those was, the team event with his brother in New Orleans.
But- Fitz, player of the year if he wins this week, yes or no?
You know, I have an issue with all of this player stuff.
I think it's too PGA Tour centric, and it's voted on by the players.
And basically, what you do after the middle of August i- is not really important.
Some huge events happen after the middle of August, Ryder Cup being one last year.
That's- Rory McIlroy's performance in the Ryder Cup last year.
Player of the year is a massive title, and it's been hijacked by the PGA Tour.
It should be the PGA Tour Player of the Year, and it should be identified as PGA Tour, what you did in the PGA Tour season.
Well- Player of the year is a huge thing in golf, and it should be around a- Where else would it go, Paulie?
Pardon?
Where you gonna go?
DP World Tour?
I mean- No, no, no.
What do you- It should, it should be around a 12-month period of what you do all around the world, not just what you do in the PGA Tour and be American centric.
Rory's performance last year in winning The Players Championship, which he calls a fifth major, winning and completing the Grand Slam, for me, one of the biggest achievements we've ever seen in the game.
One of He's sixth player in the history.
Should stand above winning another Byron Nelson.
Just, you know, not, not one to disparage of Byron Nelson.
But certainly to take on the mantle of trying to achieve the Grand Slam and getting over the line with it the way that Rory did- He only won two majors last year that, that Yeah, I know he did won two majors, but Rory won The Players, and you call that a major.
And also Rory stood up at the Ryder Cup and led his team to victory.
Scottie was nowhere to be seen at the Ryder Cup.
Now that for me is a massive thing.
So if you wanna call player of the year, it should be world centric, what you did in the 12-month calendar period- Well, but the top- not during a small period of time.
Look, look at the topic bar down there.
It's, it has the PGA Tour logo on the bottom left.
Yeah, I know.
But, but- PGA Tour Player of the Year.
Yeah, okay.
Well, people don't call it the PGA Tour Player of the Year.
Call it the PGA, on the PGA Tour, this is what we do.
But they do like saying it.
That's like when they say somebody won a world title, you know, the, in the NBA.
Like, oh, well, they, you know, they only won in America.
It's not a world title.
Yeah.
But, but the best basketball's played on the, in the NBA, in the NBA.
Yeah.
And the best golf is played on the PGA Tour.
Golf is a 12-month of the year tournament.
Oh, come on.
It, isn't it- No, it's 12, it's 12 months of the year- It's not player of the year and the Ryder Cup should certainly be part of it.
The c- Ryder Cup performances absolutely certainly should be part of it and what you've done as a player.
For a guy to win the Grand Slam, completed a Grand Slam last year, as well as win The Players, as well as win the AT&T signature event.
And, and I, I know Scottie had a phenomenal year, and he won two majors.
But, you know, n- when we look back in 15, 20 years' time to the year 20, 2025, all of us will remember that is the time that Rory McIlroy completed the Grand Slam.
Well, it's a more memorable year.
And that for me is an iconic moment.
Let me- It's a more memorable year it's an iconic moment, and it should be- There's, there's a difference.
There's a difference.
It's a more memorable year.
Good point.
In, in 1950, Ben Hogan won the Open champions- the U.S. Open.
Sam Snead won 11 times that year.
Ben Hogan did get player of the year.
He did, because it was more memorable, and the players voted for him because he came back- Well from a, from a car crash.
Now Sam Snead shoulda got it.
So what you're saying is Rory shoulda got player of the year last year.
Is that your belief here?
I believe, I believe Rory shoulda got it last year.
Right.
It was close.
I, I, I think it was- It was really, really close I think it was an iconic.
But American players are generally gonna vote for an American player, and Scottie got it.
And then- Ah, but, but, but- that name, that name hijacked- I think, I think- player of the year is hijacked.
Player of the season would be better.
Player of the PGA Tour season would be better.
All right.
So let me just put it to you.
Let's come back to 2026.
Let's just say Chris Goddrup wins here.
That would be four wins on the year for Goddrup.
It wouldn't get him player of the year.
No.
You, you would put Scottie with a win at the American Express and nothing else to this point anyway- Look- ahead of Goddrup with four wins- It's called- including a major it's called player of the year.
So he leads in scoring average.
He's gonna blow everybody away.
Right, what Scottie's doing right now, even though he's off his game, will go down in history as the s- 12th best year ever since they started keeping stats in 1983.
But it has to be about wins in the end, doesn't it?
That- Of course iconic moments it should be about, not statistics.
Of course.
And not to, not to disrespect the, the wins that Chris Goddrup has.
He's a hell of a player.
But in this particular instance, Scottie Scheffler, player of the year leads every single metric that you can possibly think of.
Except, except the most important one, wins.
No.
That's, that, I mean- What?
I mean- What's more important than wins?
Over the course of a career, maybe.
But it's best player of the It's not called who wins the most tournaments.
It's just not called that.
It's not called that.
If it were called that, we, there would be no debate.
Who won the most tournaments?
Give him the trophy.
That's what it would be.
It's called best player of the year.
So second- No, it's not called best player.
It says player of the year.
Doesn't say- Player of the year doesn't say best statistical player.
It's, it's- It says player of the year.
It's who played the best.
What do you value most?
Doesn't say most wins- Last I checked in every sport it's the Ws and it doesn't say who played the best in the Ryder Cup.
The Ryder Cup's a team event.
Yeah.
It's a team event.
I look for iconic moments.
Great sports people rise to big occasions.
Yeah.
Winning the Grand Slam is a humongous, huge moment in the history of our game.
It is.
Leading your team away from home in the hostile atmosphere of Bethpage is an, a phenomenal performance.
