Icon Sportswire
ATLANTA, GA – SEPTEMBER 21: Brooks Koepka during the second round of the Tour Championship on September 21, 2018, at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, GA. (Photo by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

By Alex Myers
The PGA Tour Player of the Year winner isn’t expected to be announced until next week, but in the meantime, Brooks Koepka already captured the other major season-long POY award. And it wasn’t even close.

Koepka was announced as the PGA of America’s Player of the Year for 2018 on Wednesday following a campaign in which he won two major championships. Koepka first successfully defended his U.S. Open title at Shinnecock Hills in June and then held off a Sunday charge by Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship at Bellerive to claim the Wanamaker Trophy. Koepka also had two runner-ups and just two missed cuts during a season that saw him climb to as high as No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

RELATED: 15 things you need to know about Brooks Koepka

Koepka, 28, wound up with 126 points, thanks in large part to receiving 25 bonus points for each of his two majors. Justin Thomas, the 2017 PGA Player of the Year, finished second overall with 66 points, followed by Johnson with 58 and Fedex Cup Champion Justin Rose with 54.

In contrast, the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year is not a points-based system, but rather a vote of players. However, the same player has won both awards every year since 1992. The PGA Tour began handing out a separate award — the winner receives the Jack Nicklaus Trophy — in 1990.

In other words, Koepka is pretty much a lock to win the PGA Tour’s POY as well. And at least two former winners, Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas, have already made it clear they believe Koepka deserves it. Koepka is one of six nominees (Thomas, Johnson, Rose, Bryson DeChambeau, and Francesco Molinari are the others) up for the honor.

In other golf award season news, Dustin Johnson officially won a close race for the Vardon Trophy, which is given out to the player with the best season-long adjusted scoring average on the PGA Tour. The World No. 1 finished with a 68.698 average to edge Rose’s 68.993. So both DJ and his buddy Brooks will have some new hardware to show off the next time they hit the gym together.