Small time Yanks...

I don't pay that much attention to golf, but I have been a fan of Luke Donald for a while because he went to college by me so I have followed his career. From this article though it seems that he should win the award.
 
The things working against him are that his only wins were a Fall Series event and the WGC Matchplay - so no stroke play events against a full field (Fall Series fields are considerably weaker and mostly made up of guys near the bottom of the money list trying to keep hold of or earn a card for the next year). Then you have guys like Keegan Bradley (who also won two events, one of which was a major), Nick Watney (also won two events and was top 3 on the money list, top 5 scoring average), Webb Simpson (best scoring average, two wins) and Bill Haas (FedEx Cup Champion).

In my eyes it's obvious that Donald was player of the year - tops on the money list while playing considerably fewer events and 14 Top 10's in 19 tournaments entered. That's an outstanding number. The main thing working against him is the quality of his wins, I think.
 
forevrared said:
The things working against him are that his only wins were a Fall Series event and the WGC Matchplay - so no stroke play events against a full field (Fall Series fields are considerably weaker and mostly made up of guys near the bottom of the money list trying to keep hold of or earn a card for the next year). Then you have guys like Keegan Bradley (who also won two events, one of which was a major), Nick Watney (also won two events and was top 3 on the money list, top 5 scoring average), Webb Simpson (best scoring average, two wins) and Bill Haas (FedEx Cup Champion).

In my eyes it's obvious that Donald was player of the year - tops on the money list while playing considerably fewer events and 14 Top 10's in 19 tournaments entered. That's an outstanding number. The main thing working against him is the quality of his wins, I think.
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I know that international wins don't count (although, they do now suddenly seem to count...) Donald has won the most tournaments this year of any PGA Tour members.
Donald also easily has the lowest scoring average on tour. His record of a top 10 place in 75 % of the PGA events he competed in is Tiger-esque to say the least.
 
Looks like the scoring average I looked at was out of date, Donald is indeed #1.

I don't agree with adding the Shanghai event just this year, although I understand it being considered as it's a WGC event and the rest are counted. It does seem like they're looking for an excuse not to give it to Donald, but like the article said, the only real way I see there being debate is if Keegan Bradley wins and I don't think he's got that great a chance.
 
The real reason I think is that they don't want a European tour member to win player of the year.
Some of the American big name stars are considering playing more events on the European tour. I know Dustin Johnson is planning to play on both tours next season and Bubba Watson is considering it as well. Both have played a fair few this season already. So the PGA tour want to discourage this.
 
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