Is Harrington The Player of the Year?

Is Padraig Harrington the player of the year? Do you have to ask?

Apparently, however, there’s some controversy. Sentiment seems to draw some to vote for Tiger Woods, following his gimpy-legged victory at Torrey Pines.

Veteran golf writer Vartan Kupelian sets them all straight, however.

Never has a golfer won two majors and not been rewarded as Player of the Year by a vote of the membership. Simply put, two majors trumps anything else that has happened this year, including Tiger’s accomplishments before his season was shortened due to injury.

Not only will Harrington’s back-to-back major victories at the Open Championship and PGA Championship be remembered at voting time, so will the way he finished the rain-soaked tournament at Oakland Hills—a pair of 66s that he posted on Sunday, a spectacular display of golf on a course that left so many of his colleagues gasping for air.

On a side note, Vartan is retiring from the Detroit News this month. I’ll miss his golf columns.