Columnist Peter Benton: Fellow golfers vote Woods No. 1

Peter Benton

Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000 | 9:16 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears weekly.

As voted by their peers, Tiger Woods, Michael Clark II and Paul Azinger have won the PGA Tour's top awards for 2000.

Woods, named PGA Tour Player of the Year for the third time in four years, (he also won in 1997 and '99), authored one of the greatest years in golf history. He won nine times, including three major championships, while setting scoring average and money-winning records. Woods' season has been compared to the great years of Bobby Jones (1930), Byron Nelson (1945) and Ben Hogan in 1953.

By being named recipient of the Jack Nicklaus Trophy, Woods became the first three-time winner of the PGA Tour Player of the Year Award. (Fred Couples and Nick Price are two-time winners of the award, which was created in 1990).

"The fact that I was able to work on a lot of things I haven't been able to work on in the past few years all came together in the biggest events," Woods said.

Other finalists were Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson.

Clark was the only first-year player to win on the 2000 PGA Tour, (the John Deere Classic), and earned Rookie of the Year honors for his efforts. He ultimately finished 56th on the official money list with $854,822. Local Eddie Fryatt, who accumulated $611,209 for the season, and Matt Gogel ($604,199) were the other two finalists.

A 31-year old native of Kingsport, Tenn., Clark birdied the fourth playoff hole to win the John Deere Classic, one of the six top-25 finishes he had in 2000.

The Tour's Comeback Player of the Year was Azinger, who in January won the Sony Open in Hawaii. It was the 40-year-old's first victory since his successful battle against lymphoma in late 1993.

Azinger ended the year with a career-best $1,597,539.

Steve Lowery, Blaine McCallister, Scott Verplank and Grant Waite were the other nominees for the award.

Each week, participating tournaments, including the Invensys Classic and Las Vegas Senior Classic, select a different player for each of the respective Tour's official money events. A player could only be chosen once during the course of the year.

The total official money won by a tournament's selected players determine the events standing in the year-long competition.

The Las Vegas Founders Club will receive $24,000 from the PGA Tour and $17,500 from the Senior PGA Tour to share with their chosen charities -- the result of the respective events standing at the conclusion of the season.