by Welcome to the 2024 Fried Egg Golf Awards. It’s the perfect time to look back on what was a wild year in golf, and this year’s honors feature both serious and silly awards.
Men’s Player of the Year
Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler and it isn’t close. Xander Schauffele won two major championships and there are no illusions about who the best player in the world is. Scheffler won eight times in 2024, nine if you include the Hero World Challenge, with victories at the Masters, the Olympics, and the Players. Sure, the current fractured state of golf precludes all of the world’s best from congregating on a weekly basis, but all of Scottie’s wins came against strong fields. He wasn’t padding his stats at TPC Craig Ranch. (Joseph LaMagna)
Women’s Player of the Year
Lydia Ko
I know it’s crazy to look at Nelly Korda’s historic season and not choose her as Player of the Year. But that’s exactly what I’m doing. Lydia Ko’s Olympic gold and Women’s Open win at the Home of Golf pack a bigger punch for me than Nelly’s seven-win season. Even though Nelly dominated the first six months of the year, Lydia cementing her place as a generational figure of the game is what I’ll remember most from this season. (Meg Adkins)
Men’s Breakout Player of the Year
Nick Dunlap
Nick Dunlap won twice on the most competitive tour in men’s professional golf, including becoming the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson in 1991. Dunlap’s wins (The American Express and the Barracuda Championship) came against substantially weaker fields than Scheffler’s, but winning is a skill. Oh, and he still hasn’t turned 21. (Joseph LaMagna)
Women’s Breakout Player of the Year
Lauren Coughlin
This time last year Lauren Coughlin was ranked 109th in the Rolex Rankings. A T3 finish at Chevron helped her jump into the top 50 and from there, she never looked back. After two wins and a spot on the winning Solheim Cup team, Coughlin is now a top-15 golfer in the world. A big-time breakout year for the journeywoman. (Meg Adkins)
Shot of the Year
Bryson DeChambeau, U.S. Open, No. 18, Final Round
Bryson DeChambeau’s third shot on the 72nd hole at Pinehurst No. 2 will go down as one of the most impressive greenside bunker shots of all time. The combination of the circumstance and the difficulty of the shot at hand made for one of the most demanding situations a golfer can face, and he executed to perfection.
Honorable Mention – Scottie Scheffler, Open Championship, No. 17, Third Round
This may be the best shot of the year given the conditions of the moment, but hard to top Bryson. (Will Knights)
Events of the Year
Men’s U.S. Open, AIG Women’s Open
Both were unsurprisingly majors. Rory McIlroy’s collapse and Bryson DeChambeau’s incredible finish in the men’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst was pure theater. On the women’s side, two weeks after Lydia Ko clinched her spot in the Hall of Fame with a gold medal at the Olympics, the fan-favorite stamped her legacy with a third major title in the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews by two over world No. 1 Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Ruoning Yin, and Jiyai Shin. (Adam Woodard)
Round of the Year
Joaquin Niemann, 59, LIV Mayakoba
According to Data Golf, Niemann’s season-opening round of 59 was the third-best round across any professional tour since 2004. It gained 11.56 shots on the field and was five shots better than anyone else on the course. Unfortunately, the round did occur before Caffeine TV and its millions of viewers came online. (Will Knights)
Course of the Year
Royal County Down
Course setup of the year would have to go to the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, but getting to watch the most dramatic course in the world on TV, under nearly ideal links conditions, is impossible to beat. Bring the Irish Open back soon, please. (Cameron Hurdus)
Most Improved Course
Interlachen Country Club
The site of Bobby Jones’s 1930 U.S. Open title (his fourth Open and third leg of that year’s calendar slam) underwent a restoration by architect Andrew Green. Strategic tree clearing paired with the return of some of Donald Ross’s dramatic features has helped restore the shine to one of golf’s most striking properties. (Cameron Hurdus)
Least Improved Course
Valhalla Golf Club
You didn’t think we’d miss one last chance to point out Valhalla’s shortcomings, did you? As Garrett Morrison predicted, the course delivered an exciting PGA Championship. Almost none of that excitement had to do with the golf course though. Let’s not return soon. (Will Knights)
Catnip Moment of the Year
Smoking Charley Hull
Charley Hull had a great season on the course. On the LPGA she made 15 made cuts in 17 starts with five top-10 finishes. She was on a heater and finished third in the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit with seven top-five finishes, including a win at the Aramco Team Series event in Riyadh. At the Solheim Cup she went 3-2-0 and smoked world No. 1 Nelly Korda in Sunday Singles, 6 and 4. All that said, her year will be remembered for the darts she smoked, not the ones she hit. (Adam Woodard)
Press Conference Moment of the Year
Zach Johnson, Masters
Zach Johnson triple-bogeyed the par-3 12th at the Masters, and then told the patrons applauding to “(expletive) off”. The 2007 Masters champion then got lost in his own explanation of the situation, which ended up being the cherry on top of his year to forget. (Adam Woodard)
The Foot in the Mouth Award (AKA Quote of the Year)
Talor Gooch
Speaking ahead of the 2024 Masters, LIV Golf Rangegoat Talor Gooch said “If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his grand slam without some of the best players in the world, there’s just going to be an asterisk.” Don’t think we need to elaborate on that one too long. (Will Knights)
The European Mind Cannot Comprehend Award
Jack Fulghum and Shota Takada, Solheim Cup
As always, there were many American activities that riled up the European media this year. But nothing steeped their tea like when the caddies for Alison Lee and Megan Khang took off their shirts in the middle of the Solheim Cup. To be fair, this didn’t sit well with some Americans either, but anytime you get the Euros in a tizzy is a fun time. (Will Knights)
Broadcast Moment of the Year
Morgan Pressel, Olympics
There were a lot of ways we could’ve gone with this one, but Morgan Pressel dropping a hard F-bomb on the broadcast during the Olympics leads the way. The only thing better than the slip-up was her awful explanation.
”I just want to take a moment to acknowledge something that I said yesterday during the broadcast,” Pressel said. “I stumbled over my words and unfortunately it sounded as if I said something inappropriate and I’m so sorry that it came across as such because I would never say that on the air in a broadcast.”
The tape doesn’t lie, Morgan. (Adam Woodard)
Rules Moment of the Year
Beau Hossler, Sanderson Farms Championship
The Rules of Golf produce some incredible moments every season, and this year in particular had a few gems. The most honorable was Sahith Theegala, who called a penalty on himself at the Tour Championship that cost him a lot of money. The most confusing was Carl Yuan’s “virtual certainty” ruling at the Sony Open (shoutout Kyle Porter for his take). Then there was the funniest request I think I’ve ever seen: Beau Hossler asking a hypothetical about moving a tree at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Hossler was denied by two officials. (Adam Woodard)
Social Media Star of the Year
Johnson Wagner
The former PGA Tour player turned Golf Channel analyst proved to be a content king this year. Whether he was firing balls into the bank at TPC Sawgrass, fending off the chipping yips at Valhalla, wading into water at the Presidents Cup, or hitting bunker shots in the dark at Pinehurst No. 2, JW delivered time and time again this year. (Will Knights)
Setup Blunder of the Year
Players Championship
Between TIO relief and incessant preferred lies, the PGA Tour offers plenty of nominees in this category. Neutering the iconic 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass by growing up the rough to serve as bumpers takes the cake though. (Joseph LaMagna)
Meme of the Year
Bryson DeChambeau Breaking 80
Here at the Fried Egg we don’t like to pat ourselves on the back too much, but we were pretty proud of this one. (Adam Woodard)
Sponsor exemption of the year
Jay Don Blake, Black Desert Classic
There were a lot of contenders for this one. They include PGA Tour Policy Board member Webb Simpson at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a signature event; PGA Tour Policy Board member Webb Simpson at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a signature event; PGA Tour Policy Board member Webb Simpson at the RBC Heritage, a signature event; and PGA Tour Policy Board member Webb Simpson at the Wells Fargo Championship, a signature event. But we have to give it to 65-year-old Jay Don Blake who received an exemption into the Black Desert Classic, all so he could make his 500th career PGA Tour start, a meaningless statistic. But hey, it did earn him an award in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. (Will Knights)
Worst Outfit of the Year
Sergio Garcia, U.S. Open
Little did we know that this horrific stretch of fits would become commonplace for The Fireballs. But what do you really expect from someone playing for a team called “The Fireballs.” (Will Knights)
Most Unruly Crowd of the Year
WM Phoenix Open
Unruly, yet they did deliver the Sir of the Year so who are we to complain? (Will Knights)
Sir of the Year
Zach Johnson, WM Phoenix Open
One of the best moments of the year, hands down. As we have learned in the time since the Ryder Cup, you can always count on Captain Zatch for a good social moment. “Oh don’t ‘Sir’ me” will be in rotation for a long, long time. (Will Knights)
This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
