PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida: Tiger Woods was voted the U.S. PGA Tour player of the year by the players on Friday, the 10th time in his 13 years on tour that he has won the award.
The tour does not disclose vote totals. Woods started and finished the season the same way - with questions when he would return.
He was coming off knee surgery at the beginning of the year, and last week announced an indefinite leave to work on his marriage after admitting to infidelity.
In between, he won six tour events, captured the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus, won the money title for the ninth time in his career with over $10.5 million, and had the lowest scoring average for the ninth time.
No one else won more than three times on the U.S. PGA Tour.
It was only the second time that Woods was voted player of the year when he did not win a major.
In a peculiar twist, Woods won in his final start before each of the four majors.
Marc Leishman of Australia was voted tour rookie of the year, becoming the first since Charles Howell III in 2001 to win the award without having won a tournament.
Leishman was the only rookie to reach the FedEx Cup finale at the Tour Championship. Players voted on the awards over the last month, with balloting ending on Friday.
It was the eighth time that Woods has swept all the major U.S. PGA Tour honors - Byron Nelson Award for the lowest adjusted scoring average (68.05), Arnold Palmer Award for the money title and Jack Nicklaus Award for player of the year. - AP
Ryder Cup captain Pavin sees strong Woods return
LONDON: American Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin predicted Friday that Tiger Woods would be as strong a player as ever when he comes back from his marital turmoil and break from golf.
Woods has admitted that he cheated on his wife and says he has decided to take an indefinite break from the game to try and save his marriage.
"Tiger's obviously a very strong-minded individual and I don't think he will play any differently when he comes back," Pavin said on a visit to London.
"He's come back from injuries and setbacks and done fine."
Pavin, who became the first non-European to receive the British Professional Golfers' Association annual recognition award for services to golf, will lead a U.S. team defending the title at Celtic Manor in Wales from Oct. 1-3 next year.
He did not elaborate on whether Woods, who missed the American triumph at Valhalla last year because of knee problems, would return to the team.
"To not have the best player in the world weakens the team," he said.
"That does not mean we can't win without him because obviously we did last time, but you always want the best player in the world."
Pavin said Woods first had to resolve his marital problems.
"My main concern is for his family. My view of him as a golfer is not going to change at all and my view of him as a human being is not going to change either," Pavin said.
"Everybody makes mistakes. I'm not going to sit here in judgment.
"I just hope things work out for him and Elin. It's obviously an emotional time for him, but I think he's going to be fine."
Meanwhile, former British Open and PGA champion Padraig Harrington, who has also played on three winning European Ryder Cup teams, said he was "amazed" by Woods' admission of infidelity.
Harrington said he regularly stayed in the same hotels as Woods while at tournaments and felt sorry for him because he believed he led a quiet life.
"Most of us would go out to dinner at tournaments but Tiger couldn't go out," the Irishman told Friday's editions of the Irish Independent.
"Living in a goldfish bowl, there was so little he could do and I kind of felt sorry for him in that sense." - AP
A look at the week's developments in the Tiger Woods scandal:
SUNDAY:
_ The global consulting firm Accenture PLC becomes the first major sponsor to cut ties with Tiger Woods, saying the golfer is "no longer the right representative" for the company. The firm had earlier credited its "Go on, be a Tiger" campaign with raising its profile.
_ Steve Williams, who has caddied for Woods for the last 10 years, tells the Sunday News in New Zealand he had no inkling of the "indiscretions" that forced Woods to take an indefinite leave from golf.
MONDAY:
_ Pictures surface on various Web sites of Elin Nordegen pumping fuel at a Florida service station. In the pictures, Woods' wife is not wearing a wedding ring.
_ Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer says it will spend the next few weeks assessing its relationship with Woods as a sponsor.
TUESDAY:
_ NBA great Charles Barkley says Woods changed his cell phone number the day after his car accident and is not talking to some of his famous friends. Barkley says he hasn't spoken to Woods since the Nov. 27 accident.
_ Sports card maker Upper Deck Co. says it will continue its relationship with Woods.
_ Cameron Percy, the last golfer to play a competitive round with Woods at the Australian PGA Championship, says Woods talked to him on the course about how he used Skype to stay in touch with his wife and children while playing in Australia.
_ Photographers say current pictures of Woods and his wife together would be worth six figures to anyone who took them.
WEDNESDAY:
_ Woods is voted Athlete of the Decade by U.S. members of The Associated Press, despite the fallout from his admission of infidelity. Voters say Woods' accomplishments during the last 10 years outweighed the revelations that forced him to take a break from the sport he dominated. Lance Armstrong finishes second, followed by Roger Federer.
_ A Canadian doctor who has treated Woods and other pro athletes is charged by Canadian authorities with selling the unapproved drug Actovegin. Dr. Anthony Galea is charged with conspiracy to import an unapproved drug and smuggling goods into Canada. Galea, who also had human growth hormone in his car when it was stopped in October, treated Woods with a platelet-rich plasma therapy earlier this year to speed his recovery from knee surgery.
_ Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest says he posted an open letter to Woods on his Web site because he believes media coverage of the golfer's troubles has been unfair. Artest calls Woods a role model, but says he has never met him and doesn't want Woods to contact him about his comments.
_ The company building "The Tiger Woods Dubai" golf course and housing development says it remains committed to finishing the first course designed by Woods despite the emirate's cash problems and the scandal involving Woods.
THURSDAY:
_ The Golf Writers Association of America votes Woods the male player of the year by an overwhelming margin over Steve Stricker, with most of the ballots returned after he became embroiled in the sex scandal. It was the 10th time Woods has won the award in his 13 years as a pro.
_ U.S. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said the Woods scandal amounted to the biggest "curveball" he has dealt with in his 15 years on the job. Finchem, though, says golf will survive no matter how long Woods stays away from the game and that a portrait of "gloom and doom" is misleading. Finchem noted six of the tour's highest-performing tournaments have not had Woods in the field during the last several years.
_ British bookmaker William Hill takes bets on how much Elin Nordegren will get if she and Woods divorce. Bettors can get 25-1 odds that Nordegren will receive more than half a billion dollars, with the odds dropping to 6-4 for a settlement under $100 million.
_ Michael Phelps says he feels sorry for Woods and wishes him and his family well. Phelps, who was photographed with a marijuana pipe three months after winning a record eight Olympic golds in Beijing, says he's "the first to admit I've made a lot of mistakes both in and out of the pool."
FRIDAY:
_ A lawyer for Anthony Galea, the Canadian sports doctor facing drug-related criminal charges, says Woods is not connected to the allegations. The lawyer for Galea says that, although the doctor treated Woods, what he did "does not relate to anything that's alleged before this court."
_ Irish golfer Padraig Harrington says he was "amazed" by Woods' admission of infidelity. Harrington tells the Irish Independent that he always felt sorry for Woods because he couldn't go out to dinner with other players and seemed to have no outside life because he was so famous.
_ Watch maker Tag Heuer cites "recent events" in saying it will not use Woods' image in advertising campaigns in the United States in the near future.
_ The Wall Street Journal reports that one of Woods' alleged mistresses, Mindy Lawton, has been under contract to the London tabloid News of the World and that her agreement with the paper prohibits her from discussing Woods with other media until after this Sunday. Both the Journal and the News of the World are owned by News Corp. - AP
Article source : http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2009/12/19/sports/20091219085509&sec=sports
