Columnist Peter Benton: Tiger Woods continues to bring home honors

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2003 | 8:56 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

This will not come as a surprise, but Tiger Woods was selected PGA Tour Player of the Year for an unprecedented fifth time.

He won five tournaments in 2002, including two major championships (Masters and U.S. Open), and collected $6,912,625 in official money to lead the Tour in earnings for the fourth consecutive year.

Woods also won his fourth straight Byron Nelson Award for leading the Tour in scoring average with a 68.56 mark.

Jonathan Byrd, who won the Buick Challenge and had four other top-10 finishes, was selected Rookie of the Year.

Comeback Player of the Year was Gene Sauers. As winner of the Air Canada Championship, Sauers enjoyed his first victory since 1989 and finished in the top 100 on the Tour's money list for the first time since 1995.

On the Champions Tour (formerly known as the Senior PGA Tour), 57-year-old Hale Irwin was the unanimous choice as Player of the Year.

Irwin won his third Jack Nicklaus Trophy after winning four times in 2002. He joins Lee Trevino as just the second player in Champions Tour history to be Player of the Year on three occasions.

Last year, Irwin became the first senior to top $3 million in season earnings ($3,028,308) and collected his fourth Byron Nelson Award as the Tour's leading scorer with a 68.93 average.

Morris Hatalsky, who began the season as a non-exempt player but gained access to events through open qualifying, sponsor exemptions and the Past Champion category, was the obvious choice as the Tour's Rookie of the Year.

By the end of the season, he had won once and earned more money than any Champions Tour Rookie ($1,391,044).

The Comeback Player of the Year was Hubert Green. He bounced back from a disappointing 2001 campaign to earn in excess of $1.2 million, helped by his fourth Champions Tour title.

On the Nationwide Tour (previously called Ben Hogan, Nike, and Buy.com), Patrick Moore was selected Player of the Year.

Moore began the season with conditional status but established himself by winning the Greater Richmond Open. He added two more victories that earned him a promotion to the PGA Tour.

For the season, he led his Tour in earnings with $381,965 and scoring average (69.86.)