The PGA Tour has revealed its three nominations for the 2024 Jack Nicklaus Award for Player of the Year, and four players in the running for the Arnold Palmer Award to recognize the Rookie of the Year.
PGA Tour Player Directors and members of the Player Advisory Council have nominated Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy for the Jack Nicklaus Award.
In all three cases there is little surprise. World No.1 Scheffler had an outstanding year on the PGA Tour with seven wins including The Masters among 16 top-10 finishes. The American also didn’t miss a cut throughout the season while he also took the Byron Nelson Award for lowest scoring average with 68.645.
Like Scheffler, Schauffele also didn’t miss a cut all year, while among his 15 top-10 finishes from his 22 starts were his first two Major titles, at the PGA Championship and The Open.
As for McIlroy, he claimed wins at the at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and Wells Fargo Championship among seven top-10 finishes with only one missed cut.
Scheffler is looking for his third Jack Nicklaus Award in succession, while McIlroy’s third and most recent Player of the Year award came in 2019. Schauffele is hoping to take the honor for the first time.
The players in line for the Arnold Palmer Award are Nick Dunlap, Max Greyserman, Jake Knapp and Matthieu Pavon.
Dunlap caused a sensation when he became the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson in 1991 when he claimed The American Express. After turning pro, he then followed that up with victory in the Barracuda Championship. That made him the first player to win a PGA Tour event in the same season as both an amateur and professional. He also recorded two more top-10 finishes and made 15 cuts in 23 starts.
While Greyserman didn’t claim his maiden PGA Tour win in 2024, he finished runner-up three times and made three other top-10 finishes. He also made 19 cuts from his 26 starts.
Knapp won the Mexico Open among three other top-10 finishes, while he made 17 cuts in 23 starts.
Finally, Pavon, who earned his PGA Tour card via the 2023 DP World Tour Race to Dubai rankings, made an almost immediate impact with victory in January’s Farmers Insurance Open. He had three other top-10 finishes including fifth at the US Open. He was also the only rookie to qualify for the Tour Championship before finishing 17th in the FedEx Cup. Overall, he made 15 cuts from 19 starts.
The recipients of the awards will be determined by a member vote, with PGA Tour members who played in at least 15 events this year eligible to vote. The voting will close on Wednesday 4 December at 5pm ET, with the winners to be announced by the end of the year.
