Tiger Woods, Juli Inkster and
Bruce Fleisher were landslide winners of the Golf Writers Association of America 1999 Player of
the Year Awards. All three will be honoured at the GWAA's Annual
Awards Dinner April 5, 2000 in Augusta, Ga.
The GWAA Awards made it a clean sweep of the major Player of the Yearhonours for both Woods and Fleisher and gave Inkster her first Player of theYear Award. Inkster finished second to Karrrie Webb in the LPGA'spoints-based Player of the Year standings.
Inkster, 39, played her way into the LPGA arm of the World Golf Hall of Fame this year by winning five times, including two majors, and becoming only the second playerto win the women's modern Grand Slam. Pat Bradley is the other.
Inkster started the year seven points shy of the Hall of Fame but won the
U.S. Women's Open then shot a closing 65 -- finishing eagle-birdie-birdie -- to win the LPGA Championship and complete the Grand Slam.
She capped herseason by winning the The Safeway LPGA Golf Championship to pick up her seventh point ofthe season -- and 27th of her career -- to become the 17th member of the LPGAHall of Fame.
Woods, who won the GWAA honour in 1997, had an incredible 1999 season in
which he won eight PGA Tour events, 11 Tournaments overall, and shattered the
single-season Tour money mark with $6,616,585.
He was the first player since
Johnny Miller in 1974 to win eight Tour events in one year and, if that
wasn't enough, Woods also won the Vardon with a record scoring average of68.43, was a member of the winning '99 U.S. Ryder Cup team and was the PGATour Player of the Year.
He earned $7.68 million worldwide and won the PGA Grand Slam.
Fleisher dominated the Senior PGA Tour as a rookie, winning seven times.
He also added seven runner-up finishes, was in thetop 10 in 19 of 32 events and led the money list with $2,515,705.
He won the Senior PGA Tour scoring title withan average of 69.19 and was the Senior PGA Tour Player of the Year and Rookieof the Year.
The GWAA, which was founded in 1946, has 865 members. The professional
organisation takes an active role in protecting the interests of all golf
journalists, works closely with all of golf's major governing bodies and the
World Golf Hall of Fame and facilitates a scholarship/internship program
that is currently helping 27 students at 17 major U.S. Universities.
