This
is the first year Furyk has received the award. He’s also the first
American not named Tiger Woods to win it since 1998. Keeping in the
spirit of firsts, Furyk won three titles, the Transitions Championship,
the Verizon Heritage and the Tour Championship, for the first time in
his career. He also was the first player to sleep through his pro-am
starting time, resulting in his disqualification at an event (The
Barclays).
Furyk finished second on the PGA Tour money list with $4,809,622 in earnings and fifth in the scoring average standings.
Meanwhile, Kuchar took home his first Vardon Trophy for low scoring
average. He was a bastion of consistency in 2010 with 11 top-ten
finishes. He also finished the season as the PGA Tour money leader with
the $4,910,477 deposited in the bank. In 97 rounds, he posted a 69.71
adjusted scoring average, .05 lower than Stricker (69.66). Paul Casey
and Retief Goosen shared third at 69.72. What’s more impressive is that
Kuchar played more events than those guys (so there was more room for
error).
The PGA Tour Player of the Year is still up for grabs. That contest
is decided by the players who vote for the peer they think is most
deserving. Last year Tiger won. (Since he took a leave of absence, does
that qualify him for Comeback Player of the Year? Kidding!) Will it be a
Furyk sweep? Methinks so.
Since the PGA uses a points system to determine the POY, it’s tough
to contend the result — not to mention Furky’s three victories, along
with winning that FedEx Cup thing — but if it were decided by votes, who
would you have picked?