UPDATE:-
September 28th 2015: Jordan Spieth put an exclamation point on what many already thought was a Player of the Year campaign when he won the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola and the FedExCup.
Five wins, two of which were majors and gave him a shot at an historic three in a row. A phenomenal 10 more top-10 finishes. All leading to a few weeks as the world's No. 1, a spot that he regained on Sunday. The youngster has made more money in a single season than anyone else - and that $12,030,465 total doesn't include Sunday's $10 million FedExCup bonus, either.
Original Story:
September 23rd 2015: Who is the PGA TOUR Player of the Year?
A month ago, the conversation wasn’t one. Now it’s a hot topic and there are hot takes at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola.
Jordan Spieth or Jason Day?
PGA Tour Player of the Year: Jordan Spieth or Jason Day (left background)? |
“Jordan,” Rory McIlroy said Wednesday from East Lake. “Two majors. It trumps all else."
“(Day has been) great. He’s been the best player for the last three months, but it's -- I feel like you’ve got to go on majors and Jordan has been the best player in those tournaments this year.”
Bubba Watson, your thoughts please? “If Jason wins this week, yeah, you would have to (vote for him).”
The race for the FedExCup is fairly open. Anyone in the top 5 of the standings, for example, would win the Tiffany sterling silver trophy and $10 million bonus with a victory Sunday in the season finale.
Player of the Year? It looked to be decided before the FedExCup Playoffs even started.
Spieth won four times, including at the Masters and U.S. Open, missed a playoff at The Open Championship by a shot and finished second at the PGA Championship.
But those were the last great moments for the 22-year-old Texan. Day, meanwhile, was just getting started.
The 27-year-old Aussie beat Spieth at the PGA and in the process beat Whistling Straits into submission, setting a major championship scoring record at 20-under.
In his next start two weeks later, Day won for the fourth time this season, opening the Playoffs with a six-stroke victory at The Barclays. Last week was another cruise-control six-shot win at the BMW Championship that kept him atop the FedExCup standings and moved him to No. 1 in the world for the first time.
Over his last eight starts Day has finished ninth, fourth, won, 12th, won, won, 12th, won. During that stretch he was 101 under. His five victories on TOUR are one more than Spieth’s four.
Still, it’s Player of the Year, not Player of the Last Two Months.
Of Spieth’s 14 top 10s this year, four of them have been second-place finishes and one a third place showing. Of Day’s 10 top 10s excluding wins, one of them was a finish in the top three.
In an anonymous poll of 10 random players, seven of them told me they’d vote for Spieth no matter what happened at East Lake. Two others said if Day won, they’d vote for him. The other said Spieth had the edge but he’d make up his mind after this week.
“Majors are big,” said Rickie Fowler. “With what Jordan’s done this year, it's pretty amazing. Jason is making his late charge, so he’s not making it any easier on the voting side of it.”
Added another player who has a couple of major championships on his resume: “I still gotta say Jordan Spieth. His major record alone ... ridiculous. That being said, my opinion could change after this week.”
Ballots will be emailed to 200-plus players on Sunday night after the TOUR Championship. At least some will wait to see what happens this week to make up their mind.
“In my mind it's a very tight race,” said Henrik Stenson. “And yeah, I would still wait until this week is over before I would put my final vote on that. I think it comes down to what happens this week."
Even Day admitted that while he’d likely vote for himself that Spieth would and should get the nod.
“I still think it's Jordan,” Day said. “What he’s done in the major championships, it's just kind of a -- it's been a whirlwind kind of run for him. As of late, it’s been a little bit of a struggle.
“But, once again, we live in a 24/7 world where we’re just kind of, whatever happens this week, we're just talking about it. We forget what he's kind of accomplished over the whole year, winning two major championships, finishing T-4 and second at the last two major championships at The Open Championship and the PGA. Everyone's talking about who is Player of the Year. If I do win this, yeah, it may turn some heads, may turn some of my peers. But to be honest, I think he's played better.”
