Steve Stricker sweeps PGA Tour Champions awards, to play on Big Island this week

After putting together one of the greatest individual seasons in PGA Tour Champions history, Steve Stricker was named the recipient of the 2023 Jack Nicklaus Award as the Tour’s Player of the Year at Tuesday night’s PGA Tour Champions Annual Awards Dinner, held at Hualālai Golf Course on the Big Island.

The 56-year-old Stricker also received the Arnold Palmer Award (season money leader) and Byron Nelson Award (season scoring average), setting PGA Tour Champions records in both categories.

Stricker capped his historic 2023 season by winning his first Charles Schwab Cup, sitting atop the standings for 25 of the 28 weeks during the season. He became the third player in the 22-season history of the Charles Schwab Cup to lead the standings for at least 25 weeks during a year, joining Bernhard Langer (2014) and Hale Irwin (2002).

Stricker won six times in 16 starts and added five runner-up finishes for a total of 11 top-two finishes (68.7% of his starts). Stricker’s six victories are the most by any player in a season since 2017 when Langer won seven times. In all, Stricker notched top-10s in 15 of his 16 starts in 2023.

Stricker matched the PGA Tour Champions record for major victories in a season, winning three of them, and finished runner-up in his other major start of 2023. He joined World Golf Hall of Fame members Gary Player (1988), Jack Nicklaus (1991) and Langer (2017) as the only players to win three majors in a season on PGA Tour Champions. Stricker captured the Regions Tradition, KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and Kaulig Companies Championship, while finishing second at the U.S. Senior Open.

Stricker’s other three victories came at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualālai, American Family Insurance Championship and Sanford International. At the season-opening event at Hualālai, Stricker recorded the low 18-hole score (60) and low 54-hole score (193) of the season by any player on PGA Tour Champions.

In earning the Arnold Palmer Award, Stricker set the single-season record for money earned on PGA Tour Champions, collecting $3,986,063 in 2023. He bettered the previous mark of $3,677,359, which was set by Langer in 2017.

In earning the Byron Nelson Award, Stricker set the single-season record for lowest stroke average with a mark of 67.54. He bettered the previous record of 67.96, set by Fred Couples in 2010.

Stricker eclipsed the record for consecutive rounds of par or better across any PGA Tour-sanctioned Tour, recording 55 straight rounds from June 2022 to June 2023. The previous mark of 52 had been set by Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour. In addition, Stricker played the first 35 rounds of the 2023 season at par or better, the longest streak to begin a year in PGA Tour Champions history.

Stricker won the player vote over four other candidates for Player of the Year: Stephen Ames, who won four times in 2023 and finished sixth in the Charles Schwab Cup standings; David Toms, who won twice and finished seventh in the Charles Schwab Cup standings; Bernhard Langer, who won twice, including his record-setting 46th win on PGA Tour Champions, and finished fifth in the Charles Schwab Cup standings; and Steven Alker, who won twice and finished second in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

The 2024 PGA Tour Champions season begins on Jan. 18 with the first round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualālai. Stricker, the defending champion at the event, is among the competitors in the 42-player field.