Effective for the 2008 Players of the Year (POY) and Rookies of the Year (ROY) awards for men and women, a new process has been developed and approved by the PDGA Board of Directors that is completely based on player stats.

Prior to 2008, all of these awards were strictly based on votes of PDGA Staff, Committee members and touring players. For 2008 and beyond, a ranking based on a combination of player stats detailed below will determine the award winners.

Players entering PDGA sanctioned events in the Open divisions will have their Event Ratings tracked. The Event Rating is the average of a player’s ratings in all rounds played in an event they have finished. Current members who enter Open or Open Women will get their best two Major and/or NT event ratings counted (excluding Worlds). Then, a member’s best five event ratings in B-tier and higher events when entering Open or Open Women will be counted. Only B-tiers where at least 54 holes were played will be considered.

The Event Rating average of a player’s best seven events selected above will determine their ranking toward Player or Rookie of the Year as the year progresses. At the end of the calendar year, the top 7 men and women in the Player of the Year rankings and top 6 in the Rookie rankings will have a few additional stats calculated to determine the winners.

The average Event Rating determined from each player’s best seven events as detailed above will be weighted 35% for POY and 45% for ROY. Then, these additional stats will be calculated for the candidates. The Event Rating a candidate earns at Worlds is weighted 20% for POY and 25% for ROY. If a candidate does not enter or finish Worlds, their lowest event rating among their best seven events will be used as their Worlds event rating. A candidate’s average percentage finish position in their seven best events (a win is 100% and last place is 0%) will be weighted at 20% for POY and 30% for ROY.

The final factor only used for Player of the Year is Head-to-head performance. A candidate gets one point for each candidate among the final 7 that they finished ahead of in their best seven events. This factor is weighted at 25%. We’ve determined that typically the Rookie candidates don’t face each other often enough, if at all, for this head-to-head factor to be useful in the calculations for this award.

Summary

• The average of a member’s Best Seven Event Ratings including at least two majors or NTs determines the candidates. This is tracked starting around July when enough events are done.
• The Best Seven Average Event Ratings (35/45%) plus Worlds Event Rating (20/25%) plus Average Finish Position (20/30%) plus Head-to-Head (25%) [POY only] determines winners. For members outside North America, it’s possible that a selected number of events might be considered as equivalent to NTs played in North America. The strength of the field in Open based on average rating of the players who finished might allow some events to qualify. The parameters for qualifying are being discussed for some future events in 2009 and beyond.