Brooks Koepka or Rory McIlroy?
The results for the PGA Tour Player of the Year award will be announced soon, and it's a two-horse race. Neither choice is a bad one.
Brooks Koepka won three tournaments, including the PGA Championship. He also posted a top-4 result in every major, and finished atop the PGA Tour money list.
Rory McIlroy also won three times, capturing the Tour Championship (and the FedEx Cup playoff title) along with the Players Championship. He won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour.
My prediction is that the major win will tip the scales in favor of Koepka, but if I had a vote, it would go to McIlroy.
The Player of the Year isn't only about which golfer played best in the majors. Sure, that's a big factor, and deserves extra weight.
Rory, though, was more consistent throughout the entire year, posting 15 top-10 finishes vs. 9 for Koepka. McIlroy finished in the top-5 in 4 four straight tournaments on the West Coast Swing, while Brooks mostly sat at home not practicing.
The PGA Tour keeps trying to tell us the playoffs are important -- well, prove it by making the deserving playoff champion the Player of the Year.
Here's my bottom line, though -- if every golfer plays their best tournament for four rounds, no one is beating McIlroy. His "A" game is still better than anyone else's on the planet.
Brooks Koepka's singular focus on majors is a great strategy for leaving a legacy, and there's nothing wrong with the way he targets certain tournaments. But that doesn't mean he was the best golfer in 2019. That title should go to
Rory McIlroy.