Furyk Is Player of the Year

Jim Furyk has taken the Tiger Woods Award Player of the Year honors on the strength of his three wins, including the Tour Championship. Furyk also pocketed $10 million as the overall winner of the FedEx Cup, for whatever that’s worth (other than $10 million).

Meanwhile, one of my faves, Matt Kuchar, won the Arnold Palmer Award for leading the money list with $100,855 more than runner up Jim Furyk. Kuchar also had the lowest adjusted scoring average this year, edging Steve Stricker by 5/100 of a point. This qualified him for both the PGA of America’s Vardon Award and the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson Award. Both of these are given to the player with the lowest adjusted scoring; the difference is in he minimum number of rounds. The PGA of America requires sixty, the PGA Tour, fifty. Now there’s a distinction without a difference.

Kuchar and Furyk both receive five year exemptions from having to earn a Tour Card. (Not that either of them would have a problem with doing this anyway).

I think it’s healthy for someone other than Tiger Woods to win these honors. The Tour needs someone other than Tiger to capture the public’s attention. I’m not convinced that Tiger will ever be the same.