Rory McIlroy wins peer-voted PGA Tour Player of the Year
When Rory McIlroy sank the final putt at Valhalla in August to win the PGA Championship, his fourth major title and second in a row, he locked up the PGA Tour Player of the Year award.
The formality of announcing the final vote of McIlroy’s peers was done Wednesday, with the Northern Irishman landing the honor for the second time. He previously won the award in 2012 when he won his first PGA Championship title at Kiawah Island.
McIlroy won the Open Championship and aforementioned PGA, with the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational sandwiched in as part of a dominance-establishing three-event win streak late in the summer. In 17 PGA Tour starts this past season, McIlroy finished in the top 10 in 12 of them. In addition, he won the BMW PGA Championship in May, the European Tour’s flagship event.
The PGA Tour does not release the final tally of votes cast by its players for the honor, but it’s safe to say McIlroy was on an overwhelming number of ballots.
“It’s a very important honor for players to be voted Player of the Year by your peers,” McIlroy said in a Wednesday morning teleconference announcing the award. “They’re the guys that you’re trying to beat week in, week out, and the other guys see you put the hard work in, and to know that they appreciate what you’ve put into it and how well that you’ve played, it’s a great honor and a great honor to win twice in the space of three years, and hopefully I can win it for many more years to come.”
McIlroy joins rare company with the win, with the likes of Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and Nick Price as the only players to win the award multiple times since it was first awarded in 1990.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
