HARTFORD, Conn. – Travelers Championship winner Harris English was one of five players nominated for PGA Tour Player of the Year.
English notched his second victory in six months after going winless for seven years when he made a 16-foot birdie putt to defeat Kramer Hickok in a tournament-record eight-hole playoff at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell. English finished 18th in the FedExCup points standings and 22nd in scoring average (70.115). He had eight Top-10 finishes and made 22 cuts in 26 starts.
Harris English, 32, of Sea Island, Ga., is favored to be one of United States Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker’s six picks that will be announced Wednesday September 8 at 10 a.m. The U.S. will play Europe on Sept. 24-26 at Whistling Straits Golf Course in Haven, Wisc.
The favorite for the Jack Nicklaus Player of the Year Award is Patrick Cantlay, who notched his fourth victory of the season, twice as many as any other player, in the Tour Championship on Sunday to capture his first FedExCup title. The 29-year-old from Long Beach, Calif., had won the BMW Championship, another FedExCup playoff event, the previous week after capturing the ZOZO Championship @ Sherwood and the Memorial. He finished fifth in scoring average (69.736) while notching seven Top-10 finishes and making 19 cuts in 24 starts and still holds the PGA Tour amateur scoring record, a then-course record 10-under-par 60 in the second round of the 2011 Travelers Championship.
The other nominees of the PGA Tour Player Directors and Player Advisory Council are No. 1-ranked Jon Rahm, who won the U.S. Open and finished second to Cantlay in the Tour Championship, Collin Morikawa, winner of The Open Championship, and 2020 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau. Nominees for the Arnold Palmer Award as the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year are Garrick Higgo and Will Zalarotis.
The Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards are determined by a member vote of OFA Tour members who played in at least 15 official FedExCup events during the 2020-21 season. The voting will close on Friday at 5 p.m., and the winners will be announced at a later date.
The Player Advisory Council and the Player Directors nominate annually a list of first-season PGA Tour members for the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Award. For the 2020-21 season, at their discretion, the Player Advisor Council and the Player Directors could have determined that circumstances (i.e. the lack of nominees due to the absence of a 2020 Korn Ferry Tour graduating class) may not have warranted the selection of a 2021 award recipient, but Garrick Higgo and Will Zalatoris were deemed worthy of nomination.
A player’s rookie season (“Rookie Year”) is defined as the season in which he becomes a PGA TOUR member, including Special Temporary Members, and plays in 10 or more events as a member or finishes in the Top 125 on the Official FedExCup Points List or qualifies as a Top 125 Non-member, whichever occurs first. Further, for purposes of the definition, a new member, including Special Temporary Members, shall not be eligible for the Arnold Palmer Award if he has previously played in more than seven Official PGA Tour money events as a professional in any prior season.
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