Grass is green, the sky is blue and Scottie Scheffler is the PGA Tour player of the year.
For the fourth year running, the PGA Tour awarded world No. 1 Scheffler the Jack Nicklaus Award for player of the year Monday, making him just the second player ever to win it four years in a row. The other? Tiger Woods.
Scheffler takes home the trophy after winning six times in 2025, a year that solidified that his greatness is here to stay. Even after a freak cooking accident sliced open his hand and delayed his season debut until February — and even after a frustrating two months as he regathered his form — Scheffler dominantly won two major championships.
Scheffler’s PGA Championship win came by five shots, and his Open Championship coronation was four shots ahead of the pack. These trophies give him four major championships in four years, and he’s just one major — the U.S. Open — from the career grand slam.
The PGA Tour also presented Aldrich Potgieter with the Arnold Palmer Award as rookie of the year. The 21-year-old South African is an exciting young bomber, the longest player on tour and second longest in the world behind only Bryson DeChambeau. While it wasn’t a consistent year for Potgieter, missing 12 of 24 cuts, he took two tournaments to thrilling playoffs and won the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit for his first win on tour.
“On behalf of the PGA Tour, congratulations to Scottie Scheffler on being named PGA Tour player of the year and Aldrich Potgieter on earning PGA Tour rookie of the year honors for 2025,” PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said. “Scottie’s consistent level of success has been nothing short of spectacular as he continues to chase history on the PGA Tour, and we’re excited to see what he will deliver in 2026.
“What Aldrich has achieved at such a young age is truly remarkable. He has captivated fans across the globe, including his home country of South Africa and the Tour is thrilled to see what his future holds.”
For Scheffler, even in an up-and-down season, his 2025 performance confirms that he’s playing in territory matched only by Woods. His nine-win 2024 season will likely go down as the greatest post-Tiger campaign, but he actually exceeded his strokes gained total in 2025. According to DataGolf, Scheffler’s past two seasons are the seventh- and eighth-best of all time in strokes gained (behind Woods’ best six).
What makes this season stand out is the solving of Scheffler’s great kryptonite: putting. After years of thriving despite being a below-average putter, Scheffler worked with coach Phil Kenyon to become one of the best putters on tour.
The next challenge? Woods won the award five times in a row from 1999 to 2003.