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Woods Re-Emerges to Lead in Player of the Year, Vardon Trophy Races

PGA
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. — Tiger Woods, who has competed in just eight events this season, has climbed to the top of the 2009 PGA of America Player of the Year and Vardon Trophy standings. Woods, who owns nine PGA Player of the Year awards and has two victories this season, has compiled 58 total points following last week’s U.S. Open, and leads the Vardon Trophy Standings with a 68.62 adjusted scoring average. Since he began his Tour career in 1996, Woods has won the Vardon Trophy seven times. The PGA Player of the Year, first presented in 1948, and the Vardon Trophy, which originated in 1937, are The PGA of America’s premier season-ending awards for excellence by a Tour professional. Woods has won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial Tournament, and is second in money earnings to go with his leading scoring average statistics. Phil Mickelson, who has won two events and shared runner-up honors in the U.S. Open, is tied for second in the Player of the Year standings at 40 points with two-event winner Brian Gay. Steve Stricker is fourth with 38 points. David Toms, with a 69.45 adjusted scoring average, is second in the Vardon Trophy standings, while Stricker is third at 69.46 and Gay fourth at 69.54. The PGA of America has honored the game’s best players with The PGA Player of the Year Award since 1948. The award is presented to the top touring professional based on a point system for tournament wins, official money standings and scoring averages. Points are tabulated from Jan. 1, through the Children’s Miracle Network Classic, which concludes Nov. 15. Since 1937, the Vardon Trophy, named by The PGA of America in honor of famed British golfer Harry Vardon, is awarded annually to the touring professional with the lowest adjusted scoring average. It is based on a minimum of 60 rounds, with no incomplete rounds, in events co-sponsored or designated by the PGA Tour. The adjusted score is computed from the average score of the field at each event.