2022 PGA Tour Player of the Year: Rory McIlroy, Cameron Smith, Scottie Scheffler headline list of nominees

Two of the four major winners are represented among these nominees for the prestigious award

By Kyle Porter

Sep 5, 2022 at 11:10 am ET • 3 min read

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The PGA Tour Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year nominees have been announced, and the contenders are exactly who you thought they would be. Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Cam Smith headline the Player of the Year race, while Sahith Theegala, Cameron Young and Tom Kim are the Rookie of the Year candidates.

McIlroy, a three-time winner of this award, won three times on the PGA Tour this year, including a dramatic Tour Championship over Scheffler in which he pocketed $18 million for his efforts. McIlroy's other two titles were the CJ Cup in fall 2021 and the Canadian Open in summer 2022. While he won a record $28 million for his on-course play (between tournament earnings, the FedEx Cup bonus and the Comcast Business Top 10), he did not have as good of a year as either Scheffler or Smith.

It was Smith who beat McIlroy at The Open Championship in July at the Old Course with a scintillating 64 in the final round. It bookended a remarkable season for the Australian, who has since moved on from the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf League. He added a Players Championship and a Tournament of Champions win to his collection this year and took home nearly $15 million in the process.

It was Scheffler, though, who had the best season of all. His four wins were all at tournaments that ranked in the top 12 in the world in strength of field in 2022 as he racked up victories at the Phoenix Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and of course the Masters, where McIlroy finished runner-up and Smith finished T3.

"Scottie Scheffler is going to win the Player of the Year," said McIlroy after beating him at the Tour Championship. "There's no doubt about that. You know, it would have been fitting for him to end his breakout season with a FedEx Cup title. I think he ... deserves this maybe more than I deserve it. He played an unbelievable season. He didn't have his best stuff today, and I played well and took advantage of that.

"Scottie will have plenty more chances to win FedEx Cups. Hell of a player, hell of a competitor. Even better person. Love his family. Look, it's hard. You don't really know what to say on the 18th green because he's had such a great year, but he'll be back, and he's a great player, and I told him this certainly isn't the last time that we're going to have these battles on the golf course."

	Rory McIlroy	Cameron Smith	Scottie Scheffler
Events	16	18	25
Wins	3	3	4
Top 10s	10	7	11
Major wins	0	1	1
Major top 10s	4	2	2
Official money	$8.7M	$10.1M	$14.0M
Strokes gained	2.1 (1st)	1.4 (11th)	1.7 (5th)

Each of the last three winners of the PGA Tour Player of the Year award have doubled as the FedEx Cup and Tour Championship winner, a streak that will likely be broken this year when PGA Tour members vote on this award. Somewhat humorously, Smith might not even be eligible to vote for the award after making his debut for LIV Golf at its Boston event last weekend. Players eligible to vote are "PGA Tour members who played in at least 15 official FedEx Cup events during the 2021-22 season."

As for the Rookie of the Year award, it's likely going to be closer than once suspected. Although Cam Young -- who himself had a flirtation period with LIV Golf -- asserted himself as the best rookie at the majors this year, Tom Kim -- who will almost certainly play for the International Team at the Presidents Cup at the end of September -- came on strong and won the Wyndham Championship to get into the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the end of the year.