Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how old Bernhard Langer is. Midway through the 2017 PGA TOUR Champions season, Langer, a World Golf Hall of Fame member, turned 60. Twenty-eight days after his birthday, he won the PURE Insurance Championship. The following month, he won again, at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, and the next week he won again, this time taking the PowerShares QQQ Championship. It was that kind of excellence that allowed Langer to earn the 2017 Jack Nicklaus Award, given annually to the Player of the Year. Langer and Jerry Kelly, the 2017 Rookie of the Year, received their awards recently at the PGA TOUR Champions Annual Awards Dinner at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Hawaii.
After capturing three major victories and seven wins total, Langer picked up the Tour’s Player of the Year honor for the seventh time in his career and fourth year in a row. He also won the Arnold Palmer Award (leading money winner) for the sixth consecutive year and ninth time overall, and the Byron Nelson Award (lowest scoring average) for the fourth consecutive year and sixth time overall.
“I’m very blessed and proud of how I played in 2017, and I’m humbled that my peers voted for me as Player of the Year,” said Langer, who won the player vote over fellow nominees Kevin Sutherland, Scott McCarron, Colin Montgomerie and Kelly. “PGA TOUR Champions keeps getting better and better, and the great competition pushes me to find ways to improve so I can continue to compete at the highest level.”
In 2017, Langer became the first player to complete the “Senior Slam” when he won the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, and two months later he surpassed Jack Nicklaus as the Tour’s all-time leader in major victories (10) when he won The Senior Open Championship. In all, he has 36 career wins, which is nine shy of Hale Irwin’s record of 45.
“Bernhard’s career includes several great seasons, and he excelled in 2017,” said PGA TOUR Champions President Greg McLaughlin. “He always seemed to play his best when it counted the most, and to win seven times—including two Charles Schwab Cup Playoff events and three major championships—is a remarkable accomplishment.”
Kelly was the only rookie to win in 2017, and his two victories helped him finish seventh in the final Charles Schwab Cup standings, best among first-year players. He rose to the top of a celebrated rookie class that included David Toms, Steve Flesch and Steve Stricker. After turning 50 on November 23, 2016, Kelly debuted with a tie for third at the Chubb Classic. He added three more top-10s before entering the winner’s circle at the Boeing Classic. That victory started a streak of five consecutive top-10s, which included another victory at the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship. He finished the year with the fifth-best scoring average (69.34), thanks in part to his record-setting streak of 16 straight rounds in the 60s, and he was seventh in the final Charles Schwab Cup standings.
“I came out for my first year on PGA TOUR Champions and was incredibly surprised at the level of play,” said Kelly, who won the player vote over David Toms. “I felt very fortunate to win twice and hopefully I can continue to contend for many years to come.”
“We had an incredible rookie class in 2017, and Jerry played very well and earned the title of Rookie of the Year,” McLaughlin added. “To finish seventh in the final Charles Schwab Cup standings in his first year is an outstanding achievement on PGA TOUR Champions.”
Langer is defending one of his titles this week, at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. Kelly is also playing, making his first appearance in the tournament.
PGA TOUR Champions Players of the Year
1990 Lee Trevino
1991 Mike Hill, George Archer
1992 Lee Trevino
1993 Dave Stockton
1994 Lee Trevino
1995 Jim Colbert
1996 Jim Colbert
1997 Hale Irwin
1998 Hale Irwin
1999 Bruce Fleisher
2000 Larry Nelson
2001 Allen Doyle
2002 Hale Irwin
2003 Tom Watson
2004 Craig Stadler
2005 Dana Quigley
2006 Jay Haas
2007 Jay Haas
2008 Bernhard Langer
2009 Bernhard Langer
2010 Bernhard Langer
2011 Tom Lehman
2012 Tom Lehman
2013 Kenny Perry
2014 Bernhard Langer
2015 Bernhard Langer
2016 Bernhard Langer
2017 Bernhard Langer
PGA TOUR Champions Rookies of the Year
1990 Lee Trevino
1991 Jim Colbert
1992 Dave Stockton
1993 Bob Murphy
1994 Jay Sigel
1995 Hale Irwin
1996 John Bland
1997 Gil Morgan
1998 Joe Inman
1999 Bruce Fleisher
2000 Doug Tewell
2001 Bob Gilder
2002 Morris Hatalsky
2003 Craig Stadler
2004 Mark McNulty
2005 Jay Haas
2006 Eduardo Romero
2007 Denis Watson
2008 Bernhard Langer
2009 Russ Cochran
2010 Fred Couples
2011 Kenny Perry
2012 Kirk Triplett
2013 Rocco Mediate
2014 Scott Dunlap
2015 Jerry Smith
2016 Paul Broadhurst
2017 Jerry Kelly