PGA TOUR Player of the Year 2019: Breaking down the four candidates

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Brooks Koepka 2019 PGA TOUR Player of the Year 2019

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – AUGUST 25: Brooks Koepka of the United States plays his shot from the fourth tee during the final round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club on August 25, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Brooks Koepka finished seven strokes behind Rory McIlroy in the 2019 TOUR Championship, missing the FedEx Cup title without truly contending for it all week, but when you look at Koepka’s body of work (no pun intended) for 2019, it’s clear that when Koepka was at his peak, there was nobody better than him all year.

No, Koepka didn’t maintain an elite level of performance week in and week out like Rory McIlroy did. He finished inside the top ten in “just” nine of 21 starts (42.86%) compared to Rory’s 14-of-19 effort. He earned 13 top-25’s compared to Rory’s 16. But he did something that few ever have when it came to the biggest events.

Koepka finished no worse than a tie for fourth in any of the year’s four majors. In doing so, he became just the fifth player ever to accomplish that feat. Jack did it in 1971 and ’73, Tiger in 2000 and 2005, Rickie Fowler in 2014 and Jordan Spieth got it done in 2015.

As our Bill Felber calculated, this was statistically one of the greatest major seasons of all time. Only five players all year were able to beat Brooks over the course of a major championship, and that’s saying something. Koepka was as close to a modern Grand Slam as anybody’s gotten in quite some time, and it doesn’t look like he’s slowing down anytime soon.

I will readily grant Koepka’s opponents in this race the fact that his swings were much wider than McIlroy’s. In Rory’s wins at THE PLAYERS and the RBC Canadian Open, Koepka finished T-56 and T-50 respectively. Sure, those aren’t majors, but it’s just about the only thing you could possibly pick apart about Koepka’s game this past year.

Next. Rory McIlroy is the player of an era on the PGA TOUR. dark

Brooks Koepka has been a breath of fresh air on and off the course, and he’s taken a competitive angle that will only serve to elevate everyone else who can play to this elite level in the years to come. It’ll rub some people the wrong way, but as long as the wins keep rolling in, why in the world would you change the formula?

2019 was year unlike many others, and for that reason, the 2019 PGA TOUR Player of the Year must be Brooks Koepka.

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