As the month of December winds down and January approaches, it’s time to look back on 2023 and reward some of the best moments the game of golf provided fans over the last year.
There were just two awards that produced unanimous votes from the esteemed Golfweek staff: the Female Amateur of the Year and the Male Player of the Year. The former was a repeat winner, while the latter is a first-time Golfweek Award recipient.
The discussion was brief and centered around a pair of multiple-time major champions as well as the winner of the 2023 FedEx Cup. Here are Golfweek’s honorable mentions for Male Player of the Year, as well as the consensus winner.
MORE: Check out every Golfweek Award for 2023
Winner: Jon Rahm
Some fans might not be thrilled with Rahm at the moment given his move to LIV Golf (especially after everything he’s said in the past) but that doesn’t overshadow what he accomplished on the golf course in 2023.
Over 20 PGA Tour events, Rahm was a four-time winner with two runner-up finishes and 13 top 25s. His wins came at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, American Express, Genesis Invitational and the Masters. At the Ryder Cup, the Spaniard went 2-0-2 for Team Europe. In other words, it was breaking news when Rahm wasn’t in the mix this season.
Honorable mention: Viktor Hovland
Hovland made 2023 his official coming-out party. The 26-year-old Norwegian was a three-time winner, including two playoff events, and claimed the PGA Tour’s season-long FedEx Cup thanks to playoff victories at both the BMW Championship and Tour Championship. Across 23 events he was in the top 25 18 times and finished nine of those events inside the top 10. He didn’t miss a single cut. Talk about consistency.
Oh yeah, he also ended the 2023 Ryder Cup with a 3-1-1 record, including a 4-and-3 drubbing of Collin Morikawa in Sunday singles.
Honorable mention: Brooks Koepka
Koepka’s 1-1-1 performance at the Ryder Cup left a little to be desired for golf fans, but the 33-year-old was back on his business in 2023. After a close call at the Masters that saw him finish T-2 alongside Phil Mickelson, Koepka earned his fifth major title at the PGA Championship and added two more LIV Golf wins in Orlando and Jeddah. Koepka also finished T-17 at the U.S. Open and T-64 at the Open Championship.
