1994 pga tour rookie of the year

PGA Tour Rookie of the Year award winners

The PGA Tour first issued their Rookie of the Year award in 1990. Like the PGA Tour Player of the Year award, it's voted on by PGA Tour players who competed in at least 12 events in a given season.

Winning the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year award, however, often turns out not to portend a good career. Of the 24 players to win the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year award, only nine went on to win a major championship.

Since 1997, the year after Tiger Woods won twice to take the Rookie of the Year award, the PGA Tour Rookies of the Year since average 2.7 wins for their career. Only five have won major championships.

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32 Best Golfers Of The 90s

The 1990s was the decade Tiger Woods joined the pro ranks, but who were the best golfers of the 90s?

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The 1990s saw great changes in top-level golf. Prize money rocketed during this decade. When Corey Pavin topped the PGA Tour money list for 1991 he did so with winnings of $979,430. When Tiger Woods did the same in 1999 the corresponding figure was $6,616,585. Equipment also changed, with metal woods coming in, ball technology moving on and graphite shafts becoming common. But who were the leading golfers during that decade who were playing through these changes in the golfing landscape?

Alison Nicholas

Gibraltar-born Alison Nicholas won the U.S. Women’s Open in 1997 at Pumpkin Ridge. She overcame Nancy Lopez by a shot despite Lopez becoming the first player to shoot all four rounds in the 60s in a U.S. Women's Open. That year Nicholas won The Association of Golf Writers Trophy, Ladies European Tour Players' Player of the Year and Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year. Nicholas won four times on the LPGA Tour in the Nineties and four times on the Ladies European Tour. She was an ever-present on Europe’s Solheim Cup team during the decade.

Paul Azinger

Paul Azinger won half a dozen times in the Nineties culminating in his victory at the PGA Championship when he defeated Greg Norman in a playoff. He also won twice on the European Tour, claiming the International Open in 1990 and 1992. Then in late 1993 he was diagnosed with with cancer in his right shoulder, which involved six months of chemotherapy and five weeks of radiation as part of his treatment. He was able to resume his tournament career, but did not win again until 2000.

Helen Alfredsson

The Swede started her professional touring career on the Ladies European Tour in 1989, and on the LPGA Tour in 1992, when she was awarded Rookie of the Year. She won the Women’s British Open in 1990, but at the time it was not counted as an LPGA Major. She also won the Evian Masters of 1994 and 1998, which was also before that tournament enjoyed Major status. Therefore her one Major Championship victory is the Dinah Shore which she won in 1993. This was her maiden victory on the LPGA tour.

Bernhard Langer

In 1993 Bernhard Langer won his second Masters title, finishing four shots clear of the field. That year he was named European Tour Golfer of the Year. He also finished third in that year’s Open Championship. He was never to win The Open, coming second twice and third four times. He won 18 times on the European Tour during the decade, including winning the PGA Championship at Wentworth in 1993 and 1995. In 1990 he won the world cup with Torsten Giedeon.

Karrie Webb

Australian Karrie Webb turned professional in 1994. In 1995 she was Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year. In 1996 she was LPGA Rookie of the Year and Tour Money Winner; in 1997 she won LPGA Vare Trophy, for the lowest scoring average for the season; in 1999 she was the LPGA Tour Money Winner and also won the LPGA Tour Player of the Year award and won the Vare Trophy again. In 1999 she also won the first of her seven Majors, the du Maurier Classic.

Justin Leonard

Justin Leonard won the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1992 and was Low Amateur at the U.S. Open of 1993. He turned pro on leaving college in 1994. In the Open Championship of 1997 at Royal Troon he was five shots off the lead going into the final round. He made six birdies on the front nine, added two more on the 16th and 17th holes and won by two shots after his final round 65. He was runner up in the next Major, the PGA Championship. He was also runner up in the notorious 1999 Open at Carnoustie when he lost out out in a three-way playoff.

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Davis Love III

When Davis Love III won the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot it was with a score of 11 under par, which was five shots better than anyone else. Indeed only three other golfers scored under par. He was the last man to win a Major using a wooden-headed driver. He won the Players Championship in 1992, one of the dozen tournaments he won on the PGA Tour in the Nineties. He also won once on the PGA Tour of Japan. He finished runner up in the Masters in 1995 and 1999, and in the U.S. Open in 1996.

Vijay Singh

The 6 foot 2 inch Fijian won the PGA Championship in 1998 at Sahalee, equalling the course record in the process with with his second round 66. It was the first of his three Majors. PGA Tour Rookie of the year in 1993, he won eight times on the PGA Tour in the 1990s, seven times on the European Tour, twice on the Southern Africa Tour, once on the Asian Tour and once on Asia Golf Circuit. He won the World Match Play Championship in 1997 at Wentworth, beating Ernie Els in the final.

For one week in 1997, from April 20 to 26 to be precise, Tom Lehman was officially the best golfer in the world. He has an unusual golfing CV for a World No. 1 – he won only four regular events in his whole career on the PGA Tour, and one on the European Tour. But he also won the 1996 Open Championship. He was better at coming second than first – he had 19 runner-up finishes on tour. In 1995, 1996 and 1997 at the U.S. Open Lehman held the 54-hole lead. But he finished 3rd, tied 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Brandie Burton

After an amateur career which had included winning the Junior World Golf Championships twice, the U.S. Girls’ Junior and being runner up in the 1989 U.S. Women’s Amateur and playing on the victorious US Curtis Cup side in 1990, in which she won all of her three matches, Brandie Burton turned professional. She was LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 1991. She won two Majors, the du Maurier Classics of 1993, when she beat Betsy King in a playoff, and 1998.

Meg Mallon began playing golf when she was seven years old. She joined the LPGA Tour in 1987 and had a breakthrough year in 1991 when she had her first victories, with four wins coming that season including in two of that year’s Majors, the LPGA Championship and the U.S. Women's Open. She had sixteen top-10 finishes in Majors that decade which, as well as her two wins, included second places at the US Women’s Open in 1995 and the Dinah Shore in 1999.

Juli Inkster

Between March and September 1999, Juli Inkster won six times on the LPGA Tour. These wins included the U.S. Women’s Open and the LPGA Championship, the third and fourth of the seven Major championships she won during her career, and both were secured with scores of 16 under par, which gave her margins of victory of five and four strokes respectively. In the other two Majors that year she came 3rd and 6th. She came second on the LPGA Tour money list that season, her best finish.

Corey Pavin

Corey Pavin topped PGA Tour's money list in 1991. In 1992 he came third at the Masters and in 1994 he was runner up in the PGA Championship, six shots behind wire-to-wire winner Nick Price. In 1995 he went into the final round of the US Open at Shinnecock Hills three shots behind Tom Lehman and Greg Norman. Pavin is remembered for his 4-wood on the final hole, which he hit from 228 yards to within a few feet of the hole, and for him running down the fairway arms aloft in celebration as the ball was still on its journey. He won by two shots.

Seve Ballesteros

Severiano Ballesteros’ peak years were before the Nineties, but he was still one of the leading golfers entering this decade and in 1991 the charismatic Spaniard won his second European Tour Order of Merit. His winnings of £545,353 that year were more than £150,000 of his nearest rival. He also won the tour’s flagship event that year, the PGA Championship at Wentworth . He won eight times in this decade with his final win on the European Tour coming in May 1995. It was, appropriately enough, the Spanish Open.

Fred Couples

Fred Couples became World No. 1 on March 22, 1992, the first American player to be No. 1 since the rankings had been introduced in April 1986. He stayed there just the week before Nick Faldo displaced him. Faldo lasted just a week in turn before Couples regained top spot, with Couples staying No. 1 for 15 weeks before Faldo again supplanted him. During this second spell as World No. 1, Couples won his only Major, the Masters. He also won the Players Championship in 1996.

All eight of Lee Janzen’s PGA Tour wins came in the 1990s. These included his two US Open titles. He won in 1993 at Baltusrol with a two-shot margin over runner up Payne Stewart. Then, after three more top-10 finishes in Majors, he won the US Open again in 1998, at the Olympic Club, when he came back from being seven strokes off the lead in the final round. He won by a stroke, with Payne Stewart again the runner up. He also won the Players Championship of 1995.

Ernie Els won the US Open twice in the 1990s. Aged 24, he triumphed at Oakmont Country Club which involved an 18-hole playoff with Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie. Roberts and Els tied in this so this pair continued to sudden-death holes and The Big Easy won on the second of these. Els took the US Open again in 1997 by one shot from runner-up Colin Montgomerie. Els won the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit in the 1991/92 and 1994/95 seasons. He also spent nine weeks as the World No. 1 over three different spells during this decade.

John Daly was the ninth reserve for the PGA Championship of 1991. When players dropped out, he got a place at the last minute. He had never won on tour, was not able to play a practice round to familiarise himself with the course, and only made his tee time by driving through the night. With his distinctly non country club attitude and his huge drives based on his “Grip It and Rip It” philosophy, Long John stood out – even more so when he won the tournament. He won another Major when he beat Costantino Rocca in a playoff at St Andrews in 1995.

Mark O'Meara

Mark O'Meara had already won 10 times on the PGA Tour, twice on the European Tour and once on the PGA Tour of Japan during this decade when he rocked up at Augusta National for the Masters in April 1998. He won that Masters, by a stroke and then, three months later, added his second Major at a wet and windy Royal Birkdale when he defeated Brian Watts in a playoff after both had played the 72 holes in level par. At 41 years old, O’Meara became the oldest man to win two Majors in a season.

Patty Sheehan

In 1992 Patty Sheehan became the first golfer to win U.S. Women's Open and the Women's British Open in the same year. However at that time the British Open was not counted as a Major, so her tally of Major wins stands at six, four of which were secured during the 1990s. It could, and should, have been five as she was leading the U.S. Women’s Open of 1990 by 11 shots at one point during the third round, but ended up losing by one shot to Betsy King.

David Duval

In October 1997 David Duval won his first tour events, with back-to-back victories. This set off a golden period of him when he won 11 tour events up until April 1999. These wins included the Tour Championship and The Players Championship. In 1998 he won the Vardon Trophy and Byron Nelson Award for the PGA Tour lowest scoring average. He also topped the PGA Tour money list that season. He was second to Tiger Woods on the 1997 and 1999 lists. From March 28 to July 3, 1999 he was top of the world golf rankings.

Ian Woosnam

On April 14, 1991 Ian Woosnam won the Masters and on April 15 he went to No. 1 in the world golf rankings. At the Masters Woosie had been in a tie for the lead with José María Olazábal and Tom Watson coming to the 72nd hole. But the other two had bunker trouble which left Woosnam with a par putt of 6-8ft for the Green Jacket. Woosnam says: “To be world number one – when you think how many golfers there are on this planet and you are the best golfer on it. Everyone wants to win a Major. But, for me, being world number one beats my Masters achievement.”

Payne Stewart

Payne Stewart won the U.S. Open in 1991 after an 18-hole playoff. At the The Open of 1993 at Royal St George’s, Stewart tied the record for the lowest round in The Open with his fourth-round 63, a record subsequently broken. In the 1998 US Open he was four shots ahead going into the final round, but ended up up losing out by a shot. The following year, at Pinehurst, he won his second U.S. Open and this third Major. A statue of him celebrating his winning putt now stands behind the 18th green.

Laura Davies

In 1994 Dame Laura Davies became the first golfer in the men’s or women’s game to win on five different tours in the same calendar year when she won in Europe, the US, Asia, Japan and Australia. But she considers 1996 to be the best year of her career as she won 10 times that year on five different tours, and won two Majors – the LPGA Championship and the du Maurier Classic. The last named was the final one of her four Major titles, which also included the LPGA Championship of 1994.

Four of her six women’s Majors titles were won in the 1990s. In 1990 she won the Dinah Shore and the US Women’s Open. In winning the LPGA Championship in 1992, by 11 shots, she recorded a 17-under 267, at the time a record low aggregate in LPGA history. Her final Major victory was the Dinah Shore in 1997. She also had 14 top-10 finishes in Majors in this decade. After retiring from competitive golf, she founded the charity Golf Fore Africa with the mission statement of “engaging the golf community to fund clean water projects in Africa.”

José María Olazábal

Ollie won the Masters in 1994 and 1999 having been runner up in 1991 at Augusta National. This decade also saw the last outings of his great Ryder Cup pairing with fellow Spaniard Seve Ballesteros. They played together in the 1991 and 1993 Ryder Cups, winnings 5.5 pts across their seven games. Olazábal also played in the victorious 1997 side under Seve’s captaincy, when the Ryder Cup was played in their homeland – the first time it had been played in continental Europe.

Greg Norman

The Great White Shark spent the whole of 1996 atop the World Golf Rankings. He had moved back to top spot in June 1995 and remained there until April 1997, when Tiger Woods toppled him. In all, he spent 312 weeks of the 1990s as World No. 1. But he won only one Major in this period, The Open of 1993, and only two Majors in total. He was eight times a runner up in Majors, notorious for letting leading positions slip. At the 1996 Masters he had a six-shot lead entering the final round, yet finished second, five shots behind winner Nick Faldo.

Colin Montgomerie

Monty dominated European golf in the Nineties. He won the European Order of Merit every year from 1993 to 1999. He won 22 times on the European Tour in this decade, but never won on the PGA Tour, nor in a Major. He lost a three-way play off for the US Open in 1994. In 1995 he set a low-scoring record at the USPGA Championship. Unfortunately for him, so did Steve Elkington, and Monty lost the playoff. He was involved in eight playoffs on the European Tour and lost seven of them; the eighth was abandoned when darkness fell.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods had his first win on the PGA Tour in 1996, at the Las Vegas Invitational, where he beat Davis Love III in a playoff. In 1997 he came top of the PGA Tour season’s money list and won his first Major, the Masters, aged 21. Despite playing the first nine holes in four over par, he ended the tournament at 18 under and won by 12 shots from Tom K ite. In 1999 he won his second Major, the PGA Championship and again headed the season’s money list on the PGA Tour. That season he won eight times on tour.

“Having been a journeyman pretty much up until 1991, winning maybe seven tournaments worldwide in 12 years as a pro, all of a sudden the floodgates opened,” says Price. In 1992 he won the USPGA Championship, and in 1994 The Open followed by his second PGA Championship, becoming the seventh golfer to capture back-to-back Majors. His success was widely enjoyed for, as Lee Trevino says, “Of all the players I know, I don't know a nicer individual. You can't find a person out there that could say a bad word about him.”

Annika Sörenstam

One of the best women’s golfers of all time, the Swede turned pro in 1992. She was the Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year in 1993 and Rookie of the Year on the LPGA Tour in 1994. In 1995 she was the Ladies European Tour Player of the Year and the LPGA Player of the Year, LPGA Tour Money Winner, LPGA Vare Trophy winner and Ladies European Tour Order of Merit winner. She also won the U.S. Women’s Open that year, the first of her ten Majors in her career, and a title which she defended successfully the following year.

Sir Nick Faldo was renowned for his intense work ethic and for not buckling in tense moments on the golf course, often winning out when his opponents did exactly that. He spent 91 weeks as World No. 1 in the 1990s including an unbroken period from July 1992 to February 1994. He won four of his six Major titles during this decade – the Open Championships of 1990 and 1992, at St Andrews and Muirfield respectively, and The Masters of 1990 and 1996. He also won the European Tour Order of Merit in 1992.

Contributing Writer Golf courses and travel are Roderick’s particular interests and he was contributing editor for the first few years of the Golf Monthly Travel Supplement. He writes travel articles and general features for the magazine, travel supplement and website. He also compiles the magazine's crossword. He is a member of Trevose Golf & Country Club and has played golf in around two dozen countries. Cricket is his other main sporting love. He is the author of five books, four of which are still in print: T he Novel Life of PG Wodehouse ; The Don: Beyond Boundaries ; Wally Hammond: Gentleman & Player and England’s Greatest Post-War All Rounder .

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About: 1994 PGA Tour

The 1994 PGA Tour season was played from January 6 to October 30. The season consisted of 44 official money events. Nick Price won the most tournaments, six, and there were 10 first-time winners. The tournament results, leaders, and award winners are listed below. After twenty years as commissioner of the PGA Tour, Deane Beman stepped down in June and was succeeded by Tim Finchem. Beman, a former tour player, became the tour's second commissioner in 1974 at age 35, following Joseph Dey.

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There's an eerie family tie to Eric Cole being named the PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year

Yoshimasa Nakano

Exactly 50 years after his mom, Laura Baugh, won LPGA Rookie of the Year, Eric Cole is the recipient of the Arnold Palmer Award as PGA Tour Rookie of the Year for the 2022-23 season, the tour announced on Wednesday. The coincidence extends beyond that golden anniversary to the manner in which each won the award—with consistency but without the benefit of a victory.

Cole, 35, was chosen by a vote of his peers over Ludvig Aberg of Sweden, who proved to be a force after turning professional in June. Aberg seemed a strong bet to get the selection after winning the final event of the extended split-calendar season, the RSM Classic. He even beat Cole head-to-head playing in the final group in Sea Island, Ga.

MORE: How Eric Cole overcame a disease, broken back and years of playing on mini-tours

The late-blooming Cole—the second-oldest winner behind Todd Hamilton, who was 39 when he captured the honor in 2004—racked up six top-five finishes and was the lone rookie to reach the second round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the BMW Championship. Only Scottie Scheffler, who repeated as Player of the Year, Patrick Cantlay, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm had more top-fives.

Like Scheffler, Cole was rewarded for his body of work throughout the season, one that began ominously with four straight missed cuts. After struggling for so long just to reach the PGA Tour and grinding out a living on mini-tours, Cole could have panicked. Instead, he put together a season in which he earned nearly $5.5 million and rose to 41st in the world after starting 2023 at No. 370.

“Yeah, it wasn't a great start to the PGA Tour season at the end of 2022,” said Cole, whose father, Bobby, also played professionally and won once on tour. “There were a couple odd things that happened in there. I had COVID in Napa and I had my clubs stolen in Vegas. I also missed a couple of the cuts by one, so I wasn't playing terrible.

“So, I didn't go into any kind of panic. I tried to keep myself from that and tried to just tell myself that the game that you have that gets you to the PGA Tour, if you just stick with it … a lot of advice I got from my parents and older pros said that if you just stick with it and don't try and change too much, then most of the time the game that gets you there, you can have success with. I kind of just kept replaying that thought in my head.”

It was a thought that he had long harbored having played plenty of rounds of golf with Arnold Palmer growing up in Orlando and then with tour players in South Florida. His breakthrough came at the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where he lost in a playoff to Chris Kirk, but he already knew he had it in him.

“I played a lot of golf with guys who had success on tour, and when I would play with them at home or randomly throughout the year, I felt like my game stacked up pretty well,” Cole said during a video conference call with reporters as he prepared for the season-opening event, The Sentry, in Kapalua, Hawaii. “I saw them having success, and it fueled me to think, if I just keep at it and doing what I'm doing, if I get the opportunity and end up getting there, I think that I can have success.”

Winning rookie honors has two-fold meaning for Cole. First, of course, is the connection to his mom, and he thought of her almost immediately. “I think it's kind of a cool thing with my mom winning Rookie of the Year 50 years ago, kind of the 50th anniversary of that. She won it when she was probably 18 or 19 if I had to guess. Different path for me. But it’s just really special.”

Then there’s his relationship with Palmer. Cole figures that he played with the legendary golfer 50 or more times, but that’s not what he remembers most about him.

“The more memorable thing to me was just spending time around him, hearing some of his old stories about traveling the tour back in the day and some of those stories had my dad in them, which I thought was really cool,” said Cole, who always enjoyed watching Palmer tinker with his club. “It's the little stuff like that that when I think about him and growing up kind of means the most to me.

“But it's just so incredible to win an award named after him, even if I didn't have the connec-tion with him, it would still be an incredible honor, and then to have that layer of me growing up around him a little bit … it's almost hard to believe.”

Arnie, by the way, launched his pro career comparatively late, too. He did all right.

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The LPGA Rookie of the Year Award was established in 1962 by the LPGA. This honor is given annually to a first-year Member based on her tournament performance and playing ability in all Major Championships and Official Tournaments through the last Official Tournament of the year. Please note that for the 2021 season, all Rookies from 2020 and 2021 will be eligible for the 2021 Rookie of the Year

LPGA Tour rookies are awarded points at each official LPGA tournament based upon their finishes. IN the event of ties at positions, each player receives the full point value. The point values are as follows:

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Tune in to watch as the LPGA Tour tees it up for their first major championship of the 2024 season.  The Club at Carlton Woods plays host to The Chevron Championship. The 132-player field, highlighted by 10 of the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings, will compete for a $7.9 million purse. 

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Ludvig aberg leads candidates for pga tour rookie of the year for the 2022-23 season, share this article.

There were 28 rookies on the PGA Tour for the 2022-23 season, the same number that there were a year ago. It’s also the most since the Tour had 35 newbies for the 2011 season.

Of those 28, none made the 30-man field at the 2023 Tour Championship, the first time rookies were shut out of East Lake Golf Club since the 2020-21 season. Notably, there have never been more than two rookies in the season finale in the 17-year history of the FedEx Cup.

With his victory in the season finale at the RSM Classic, Ludvig Aberg made it three rookies to win a Tour event this season, joining Nico Echavarria at the Puerto Rico Open and Vincent Norrman at the Barbasol Championship . Aberg’s, however, had the lone win in a non-opposite field event.

While plenty of these first-year players made some noise along the way this season, there can only be one Rookie of the Year. Players had through the end of the FedEx Cup Fall series to earn consideration.

The Player of the Year and Rookie of the year nominees for the 2022-23 season were finalized by the PGA Tour Player directors and members of the Player Advisory Council (PAC) and officially unveiled on Monday, Dec. 4.

Voting for the two awards will take place among PGA Tour members who played in at least 15 official FedExCup events during the season. The voting will close on Friday, Dec. 15, at 5 p.m. ET.

The winners will be announced in January at The Sentry, the first event of the 2024 season, which marks the return of the calendar-based schedule.

Here are the nominees, listed in alphabetical order below, for the PGA Tour Player of the Year.

Nico Echavarria

Nico Echavarria of Columbia poses with his caddie and the trophy on the 18th green after winning the 2023 Puerto Rico Open at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. (Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Let’s start with the one of the rookies who took home some tournament hardware this season.

Nico Echavarria shot a final-round 68 at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, in March to win the 2023 Puerto Rico Open. Echavarria finished at 21 under and outlasted Akshay Bhatia by two shots in the opposite-field event.

He did have two other top-25 finishes but what counts against Echavarria is since his win, he’s missed the cut in 15 of his next 17 events. His last made cut was back in April.

Vincent Norrman

Vincent Norrman celebrates with the trophy after winning the 2023 Barbasol Championship at Keene Trace Golf Club. (Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Norrman was the only other rookie winner on the PGA Tour this season.

Like Echavarria, Norrman’s win came in an opposite-field event at the Barbasol Championship. A final-hole bogey cost him a win in regulation but he went on to hoist the trophy after surviving a playoff.

Norrman made 17 of 29 cuts and has two other top-10s in addition to his win. He made $1.6 million in on-course earnings.

Eric Cole tees off at the 17th hole during the third round of the 2023 Honda Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. (Photo: Andres Leiva/Palm Beach Post)

A 35-year-old rookie, Eric Cole fell just shy of the winner’s circle , coming up short in a playoff with Chris Kirk at the Honda Classic in February.

Of the 28 rookies this season, he had the best FedEx Cup finish (43) on the strength of 14 top-25 finishes, with seven of those in the top 10, including a tie for third at the RSM Classic.

A workhorse who’s played 37 events, he made the cut in 27 of them, including both majors he played – the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open – as well as the Players Championship. He made $5.4 million this season. He leads the Tour in birdies this season.

Ludvig Aberg

Ludvig Aberg poses for a photo with the trophy after winning the 2023 RSM Classic on the Seaside Course at Sea Island Resort in St Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Aberg played 16 events this season, and made the cut in 13 of them. He got the win at the RSM Classic and had three other top 10 finishes. He made almost half of his $3.1 million with his win at Sea Island, where he banked $1.5 million . His win guarantees him exempt status through the 2025 season.

A late charge in the season probably makes him the favorite to claim the prize.

In 2023 Ludvig Aberg… – Turned pro – Won on the DP World Tour – Won on the PGA Tour Going back 30 years I have not found another example of a player doing all 3 of those in the same year. — Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) November 19, 2023

PGA Tour Rookie of the Year winners

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35-year-old Eric Cole wins PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year, second-oldest winner in history

Eric Cole waited more than a decade to get his PGA Tour card after turning pro.

The wait paid off.

Cole, 35, was named the Tour's 2022-23 Rookie of the Year on Wednesday to win the Arnold Palmer Award. He's the second-oldest winner of the Arnold Palmer Award in the Tour's history (Todd Hamilton was 38 when he won in 2004) and he beat out rising star Ludvig Aberg for the title.

The PGA Tour Player of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year awards are determined by a member vote, with Tour members who played in at least 15 official FedExCup events during the 2022-23 season eligible to vote. Scottie Scheffler was voted Player of the Year.

"It's a huge honor to win Rookie of the Year," Cole said. "It's an award in golf where you only get one chance to win it, which is a little bit unique. To win that and be voted by my peers is pretty incredible, and it's just a huge honor."

Cole's mother, Laura Baugh, was the LPGA Rookie of the Year in 1973.

https://twitter.com/LPGA/status/1742642721964077312

Cole had seven top-10 finishes last season, including a runner-up at the Honda Classic (now the Cognizant Classic). There were 28 rookies last season and he was the only one to finish in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings.

He finished in the top five in four of his final five events in 2023, helping secure his status among the up-and-comers on the PGA Tour and the title of Rookie of the Year.

BY THE NUMBERS : Did the players get the vote right?

Over the last 12 months, Cole rose from 228th to 20th in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings but his year did get off to a rocky start. He missed his first four cuts, which included testing positive for COVID-19 at the 2022 Fortinet Championship and then having his clubs stolen a couple weeks later at the Shriners Children's Open.

He ended up making 37 starts, though, with his best finish coming at the Honda when he fell in a playoff against Chris Kirk. He tied for second at the Zozo Championship in Japan and finished T-3 at the season-ending RSM Classic.

"It was a long year," Cole said. "I got a lot of comments that I played a lot, but I was just so happy to be out on Tour finally, and any chance I had to compete on Tour just felt like a huge privilege.

"I didn't get off to the best start missing some early cuts, but then kind of got it together a little bit and started to play really consistently and pretty well there the last half of the year and kind of capped it off with a pretty good fall, so it was awesome."

His last missed cut came in May at the Charles Schwab Challenge, making 15 straight cuts to end the year. He's in the field at the season-opening The Sentry , playing in the first two rounds with Open champion Brian Harman and Camilo Villegas.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: 35-year-old Eric Cole wins PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year, second-oldest winner in history

Power Rankings: Corales Puntacana Championship

Power Rankings

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There are opportunities, and then there are opportunities. The Corales Puntacana Championship is, well, both.

The second Additional Event of 2024 is one of three tournaments with a PGA TOUR-long three consecutive breakthrough winners. Four of its six champions since debuting in 2018 were first-timers. But while a coronation awaits all in the field of 132 in the Dominican Republic, there are many secondary goals in play as well.

For details of what they are, how Corales Golf Club will play and more, continue reading below.

OTHER TO CONSIDER

• Mark Hubbard … He’s cashed in all 10 starts in 2024 with a season-best T4 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where he’s been teasing something special for a long time, notwithstanding his successful marriage proposal in 2015. Profiles best on shorter courses like those on that rota but he’s T5 in par-5 scoring and firing well enough on all cylinders in his prime to be a threat just about everywhere.
• Rafael Campos … The native of Puerto Rico has been a long-time visitor to the Dominican Republic, so it’s not surprising at all that he’s never missed an edition of this tournament despite limited action as a PGA TOUR member. His career-best finish occurred at Corales Puntacana in 2021 when he fell one short of pushing Joel Dahmen into a playoff. With a similar ethos with which he’s familiar at home, it’s like a sixth major even though he’s never made a start in a defined major and the Puerto Rico Open (on paspalum) is the non-major nearest and dearest. It’s also where he recorded a season-best T18 a little over a month ago.
• Chan Kim … After a few flashes of his potential sprinkled across six seasons, including nine starts in 2021-22 that eliminated his rookie eligibility as a first-time member in 2024, the 34-year-old has found a pocket that allows his ball-striking to shine. He’s cashed in seven straight upon arrival and eight overall with a T8 on paspalum at the Mexico Open at Vidanta and a pair of T14s, including his most recent start at the Valero Texas Open. A weapon has been his play with the cut line in view. Currently fifth on TOUR in second-round scoring average with nothing but scores of par and better contributing.

Additional Events, like this annual trip to the eastern edge of Hispaniola, pay forward into so many objectives.

That’s an important lane because winners of opposite events don’t automatically qualify for Signature Events, just as they don’t get into the next Masters with the same victory. However, berths into the 2024 PGA Championship and the 2025 editions of The Sentry and THE PLAYERS Championship are promised.

The Corales Puntacana champ also banks 300 FedExCup points and will be set with a PGA TOUR membership exemption in the winners category through 2026.

At 7,670 yards, Corales Golf Club is long by anyone’s standards, but it’s a stock par 72 that’s surrendered scoring averages from a half-shot to a full shot under par most of the time. That’s a proper target again this week as the weather will be seasonable, so it will be predictable. Passing clouds will cover daytime highs in the low 80s while prevailing breezes pushing in from easterly directions will be steady but not significant.

Corales Puntacana is the third track in the last nine weeks that’s blanketed with paspalum, specifically Supreme. The fourth and final course on TOUR equipped with paspalum is El Cardonal at Diamante, host of the World Wide Technology Championship in the FedExCup Fall. Paspalum has paid off handsomely for a subset of veterans, including Garnett who prevailed in the inaugural edition at Corales Puntacana in 2018. His victory in Puerto Rico a month ago also was on the surface.

As a resort course, fairways at Corales Puntacana are welcoming. The field can have at it off the tee as the only rough is just an inch or so deep, but average-sized greens prepped to run 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter help protect scoring.

While Quail Hollow Club, which will host the Wells Fargo in three weeks, never will be confused with Corales Golf Club, the duo shares a trio of challenging holes at the conclusion of their rounds. Before the field at Quail Hollow contends with The Green Mile that wraps that trek, this week’s entrants will be tackling The Devil’s Elbow, a par-4-3-4 test at the finish line. Each of the holes has averaged over par in all five editions of the tournament when it’s been held in the spring. So, there’s likely to be more surrendering of a lead than emerging to grab it late.

NOTE: ShotLink is not utilized for this tournament.

ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE

MONDAY: Power Rankings (RBC Heritage) TUESDAY: Power Rankings (Corales Puntacana); Sleepers (Heritage) WEDNESDAY: Golfbet Insider SUNDAY: Points and Payouts (Heritage); Points and Payouts (Corales); Medical Extensions; Qualifiers; Reshuffle

* Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

Rob Bolton is a Golfbet columnist for the PGA TOUR. The Chicagoland native has been playing fantasy golf since 1994, so he was just waiting for the Internet to catch up with him. Follow Rob Bolton on Twitter .