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Jordan Spieth, who won the Masters, U.S. Open and Sunday's Tour Championship, became the second-youngest golfer to capture the PGA of America Player of the Year Award and Vardon Trophy. The season-ending awards announced Monday are presented for excellence by a PGA Tour professional.
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Spieth, 22, followed Tiger Woods as the second-youngest to capture both awards in the same year. Woods was 21 in 1997 when he won the first of his 11 PGA Player of the Year Awards and nine Vardon Trophies.
Spieth withstood some mid-round wobbles to shoot 1-under 69 on Sunday to win the Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta and become the youngest winner of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup. Spieth earned $1.485 million for the win, as well as the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus.
"This is incredible," Spieth said Sunday. "This is an event where we approached it like a major championship. I didn't have a great playoff, but I put a lot into this week. Mentally I stayed in it, and boy, that putter sure paid off."
The win also means Spieth will return to No. 1 in the World Golf Ranking and he set a new record for earnings in one season with $12,030,465.
In addition to his two majors and Tour Championship, Spieth had victories in the Valspar Championship and the John Deere Classic.
On his way to earning the Vardon Trophy, Spieth posted an adjusted scoring average of 68.911 through 91 complete rounds. He edged PGA champion Jason Day (69.161), who completed 75 rounds, by 0.25 strokes.
Overall, Spieth collected 180 Player of the Year points, based upon 90 points for his five victories; 50 bonus points for earning two major championships; 20 points for leading the money list and 20 points for winning the Vardon Trophy. Day was runner-up in the Player of the Year standings with 106 total points, followed by Bubba Watson with 52, British Open champion Zach Johnson with 46 and Rickie Fowler with 44.
Since 1948, the PGA of America has honored the game's best players with the Player of the Year Award. It is presented to the top Tour professional based on a point system for tournament wins, official money standings and scoring averages.
Since 1937, the Vardon Trophy, named in honor of legendary 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.
The PGA Tour also recognizes its annual Player of the Year, with the winner announced Friday determined by a vote of the membership.
