ESPN Golf

Updated: December 7, 2006, 11:40 AM ET

Tiger's our unanimous POY choice

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ESPN.com/GolfDigest.com

The PGA Tour has yet to announce its 2006 award winners, but our experts beat them to the punch, proffering their selections in six different year-end categories.

2006 PGA Tour experts' selections
	Bob Harig ESPN.com contributor	Jason Sobel ESPN.com golf editor	Ron Sirak Golf World executive editor	Brian Wacker GolfDigest.com associate editor
Player of the Year	Woods Wins at the British Open and PGA would have been enough. Adding six more victories makes Tiger Woods' season one of the best in PGA Tour history.	Woods Tiger Woods seems like a given right now – and he is – but remember, halfway through the season he was well off the pace. Good thing the dude knows how to close.	Woods Simply put, Tiger Woods had one of the five greatest years of all time, ranking with Bobby Jones in 1930 (Grand Slam), Byron Nelson in 1945 (18 wins, 11 in a row), Ben Hogan in 1953 (three-for-three in the majors and five wins in only six starts) and himself in 2000 (three majors, nine wins).	Woods For Tiger Woods, an eight-win season that included two major championships and six straight victories nearly mimicked his 2000 dream season.
POY (non-Tiger division)	Mickelson Despite Phil Mickelson's second-half flop, you can't ignore a Masters title, a 13-shot victory at the BellSouth and his near-miss at the U.S. Open.	Ogilvy With a win at the U.S. Open and another at the prestigious Accenture Match Play, give the nod to Geoff Ogilvy, who had a breakout season.	Europe The European Ryder Cup team demolished the Americans and was clearly the better team from top to bottom. And along the way it demonstrated a key to victory the U.S. team seems to have forgotten – having fun!	Furyk Mickelson may have won the Masters, but Jim Furyk solidified his spot as the No. 2 player in the world with 13 top-10s, nine finishes in the top three, a pair of wins and just one finish outside the top 20 since mid-May.
Rookie of the Year	Immelman Trevor Immelman might not be a rookie in the true sense, but the tour's rules say he is; he had the best season and is knocking on the door of top 10 in the world.	Villegas With 42 previous career PGA Tour starts, Immelman shouldn't be considered a rookie. Give the award to Camilo Villegas, who did everything but win.	Villegas What Camilo Villegas accomplished as a competitor was solid enough, but he really earns this honor with what he accomplished as a personality, being the poster boy for bomb-and-gouge golf. Minimal success on the course will make the Colombian a huge star.	Holmes Villegas had two more top-10s and three more top-25s, but the one big difference between he and J.B. Holmes is that Holmes won and did so in just his fourth career start with a final-round 66 at the FBR.
Comeback player	Stricker He didn't even have status on the PGA Tour when the year began but Steve Stricker played well enough to earn his card and earn consideration for the U.S. Ryder Cup team.	Stricker How can it not be Steve Stricker? In only 17 starts as a nonmember, he earned seven top-10s, including at both majors he played.	Montgomerie Colin Montgomerie earns this based on a failure, oddly enough. But Monty's effort at Winged Foot, where he was in the U.S. Open until the last hole, demonstrated that he is still capable of winning a major championship.	Stricker After finishing 162nd on the money list in '05, Steve Stricker played this season on past champion status and recorded seven top-10s, including a runner-up at the Booz Allen and a third at Houston.
Most improved	Curtis People were talking about Ben Curtis as a fluke after winning the 2003 British Open, and he gave them good reason. But two victories this year made quite a statement.	Wetterich From Q School to the Ryder Cup? It had never been done before. You can't improve much more than Brett Wetterich did this season.	Furyk It's really difficult to improve when you are as good as Jim Furyk already was, but in one season he passed Mickelson, Els, Goose, Singh and Garcia to become the clear No. 2 in the game. He will get a second major in 2007.	Curtis A year after making just eight of 24 cuts, Ben Curtis had two wins, two top-10s and seven top-25s on his way to $2.25 million in earnings in '06.
Most disappointing	Els We're not used to seeing Ernie Els go a full year without winning a tournament and struggling to make the Tour Championship.	Leonard John Daly is an easy choice, David Duval is an annual choice, but the pick here is Justin Leonard. Only two top-10s in 26 starts? What happened?	Wie Not a PGA Tour member – in fact not a member of any tour – but the bloom faded from Michelle Wie's rose in 2006. She missed the cut by four strokes in the Sony Open, withdrew after 27 holes in the John Deere and was dead last at 84 Lumber. Will anyone care in 2007?	Els Ernie Els had eight top-10s and a playoff loss to Tiger in Dubai, but in the four majors Els was only a factor at the British Open, where he was in contention until a pair of 71s on the weekend resulted in a third-place finish.