Scottie Scheffler and Nick Dunlap headline the nominees for the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards.
The tour released a list of the candidates for their end-of-the-season honours Monday following the 2024 finale at the RSM Classic. The nominees were finalized by the tour’s player directors and members of the Player Advisory Council. Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy will be vying for the Jack Nicklaus Award, with Dunlap facing Matthieu Pavon, Jake Knapp and Max Greyserman for the Arnold Palmer Award.
Scheffler, who’s captured the Player of the Year title the two previous campaigns, is a good bet to take it home a third consecutive season. Scheffler won seven times on the PGA Tour in 2024, highlighted by his second Masters win and becoming the first competitor to successfully defend the Players Championship. His five other victories came at signature events: The Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, Memorial, Travelers Championship and Tour Championship, the last which wrapped up his first FedEx Cup. He was first on tour in scoring and strokes gained, and posted 16 top-10 finishes in 19 starts. Scheffler also triumphed at the 2024 Olympics, winning the gold medal at Le Golf National outside Paris.
Any other year, Schauffele would seemingly be a POY favourite. Schauffele earned his breakthrough major win at the PGA Championship in May and quickly proved it was no aberration by walking away with the claret jug at Royal Troon in July. Schauffele also had a handful of near-misses with three runner-ups (finishing the year with 15 top 10s in 22 outings) and tied for a team-high four points in the Americans’ 2024 Presidents Cup victory. McIlroy, who just won his sixth DP World Tour Race to Dubai title, had four global wins this season, two on tour at the team-centric Zurich Classic and the signature event Wells Fargo Championship.
Dunlap became the first amateur in three decades to win on the PGA Tour with his conquest at the American Express in January. The University of Alabama product had a rough assimilation to tour competition in the early going, but the 20-year-old bounced back with a solid second half of the year, winning the Barracuda Championship in July and finishing T-5 at the playoff-opening FedEx St. Jude Championship. Pavon (the Farmers Insurance Open) and Knapp (Mexico Open) also won in their rookie campaigns, while Greyserman has five top-5 finishes, highlighted by three runner-ups.
Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year are determined by a member vote, with PGA Tour members who played in at least 15 events during the 2024 season eligible to vote. The winners will be announced by the end of the year.
Main Image: J.D. Cuban
