Making It Official: Tiger Player of the Year

The PGA Tour's Player of the Year award - a k a the Jack Nicklaus Award - is based on voting by PGA Tour members. And the winner of the vote for the 2009 season is ... Tiger Woods. Woods wrapped up the PGA of America's Player of the Year award some time ago, and everyone knew he'd win the PGA Tour's version, too. The votes just needed to be counted.

It's actually not that common for a golfer who failed to win a major during the year to win the Player of the Year award on the PGA Tour. Winning majors is the biggest deal in the golf world, and Woods didn't win any of them this season.

But the guys who did win the majors - Angel Cabrera, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink and Y.E. Yang - didn't do enough in the rest of their seasons to overcome Tiger's six total victories, his scoring title and his money title. It's the 10th time Woods has won the PGA Tour Player of the Year award, by far the most.

Also today, the Tour announced that Marc Leishman is the 2009 Rookie of the Year. No rookies really stood out in 2009, but Leishman was the only one to qualify for the Tour Championship, and posted three Top 10 finishes.

See also:

• PGA Tour Player of the Year winners
• PGA Tour Rookie of the Year winners