Nov 20

Written by:
11/20/2008 

The ballot is out and there are five names on it, all great golfers on the PGA Tour. 

At the top of the list are Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington.  With three of the year's four majors between them, these two guys are really the only viable options for the award (Trevor Immelman won the Masters and then quickly disappeared for the rest of the year).  A case could be made for either Woods or Harrington, that's up to you.  That's not what I want to talk about.

Let's take a look at the other three guys on the ballot.  Vijay Singh, Kenny Perry and Camillo Villegas were added by the 16-man Players Advisory Council to round things out.  I think they would have been better just giving voters the choice between Woods and Harrington rather than snubbing at least one more multiple winners.

Anthony Kim, the 23-year-old sensation who won twice against full fields and was in the mix throughout the FedEx Cup events, was left off the list.  That makes Villegas an odd addition to the list because he also won two events, but they were the final two playoff tournaments against limited fields.  

It just seems hard to discredit the year that Kim had.  He finally showed the kind of focus neccessary to be a consistent winner on tour and I'd be surprised not to see him in contention more often in 2009, maybe even winning a major like the US Open or PGA Championship.  

As for Player of the Year voting, here's how I see things shaking out: Harrington, Woods, Singh, Perry and Villegas.  Sorry Tiger, but two majors is better than one.