Top Golf Newsmakers of 2022: The PGA Tour Player of the Year
Who He Is: PGA Tour member and 2022 Player of the Year, 2022 Masters champion
SI Golf Rank: 8 (Bob Harig), 4 (Gabby Herzig), 3 (Alex Miceli), 6 (Jeff Ritter), 8 (John Schwarb)
Why He's Here: It seems so long ago, but on Jan. 1, 2022, Scottie Scheffler was still winless on the PGA Tour. Shortly after earning 2 ½ points for the winning U.S. Ryder Cup team the previous September, Scheffler finished second at both the Houston Open and Hero World Challenge, putting him squarely on the “Watch List” for 2022. He was unquestionably a player on the rise, but he also hadn’t really arrived. Surely he was due to win somewhere.
Did he ever.
Other Top Newsmakers: No. 5 Jay Monahan | No. 6 Cameron Smith | No. 7 Greg Norman | No. 8 Dustin Johnson | No. 9 Patrick Reed | No. 10 Tom Kim | No. 11 Lydia Ko | No. 12 Justin Thomas | No. 13 Alan Shipnuck | No. 14 Jennifer Kupcho | No. 15 Matt Fitzpatrick | No. 16 Keith Pelley | No. 17 Judge Beth Labson Freeman | No. 18 Max Homa | No. 19 Rose Zhang | No. 20 Henrik Stenson
Scheffler claimed the Phoenix Open in February for his first PGA Tour trophy, and after removing that proverbial weight from his shoulders, the wins just kept coming—the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Match Play and, the biggest one of all, the Masters. Four wins in six starts. During the run, Scheffler seized the No. 1 ranking in the world.
Scheffler didn’t win again in 2022 after slipping into his green jacket, but he remained a factor. He tied for second to Matt Fitzpatrick at the U.S. Open, where Fitzpatrick’s heroic 72nd-hole shot from a fairway bunker dodged a potential playoff. Scheffler finished third at the BMW in August and rolled into the final round of the Tour Championship at East Lake with an eye-popping six-shot lead while appearing for all the world to be a mortal lock for the FedEx Cup’s $18 million bonus. But he stumbled to a 73, the highest round in the field that day, which allowed Rory McIlroy to slip past him by one shot. Scheffler was still named the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year while earning $24.8 million on the course courtesy of prize money (a single-season record $14.05 million) a FedEx runner-up bonus ($5.75 million) and a bonus from the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 ($4 million). By any measure, Scheffler enjoyed a seismic season.
2023 Outlook: Bullish? Yes, still bullish, although it’s tough to back up the season he just completed with an encore. But Scheffler’s now a known quantity who can contend and win anywhere, so he’s a threat anytime his game is clicking. He enters 2023 No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking behind McIlroy. He’ll be on the short list of favorites for all the big events, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him bag a second major title somewhere in 2023.