Tiger Woods was voted Male Player of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America on Thursday by an overwhelming margin over former Illini Steve Stricker, with most ballots returned after Woods became embroiled in his scandal.
It was the 10th time Woods has won the award in his 13 years as a pro.
LPGA Tour rookie Jiyai Shin was voted Female Player of the Year over Lorena Ochoa, while Loren Roberts won the Senior Player award.
Woods, forced out for eight months with major knee surgery, returned to win six times on the PGA Tour. He captured the FedEx Cup, along with the PGA Tour money title and the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average.
He received 168 votes (84 percent), while Stricker had 20 votes and PGA champion Y.E. Yang received 13 votes.
Voting for the GWAA awards began three days before news of Woods’ traffic accident outside his Florida home, the first sign of trouble that led the him to eventually admit to infidelity.
Just under half the ballots were cast before the Nov. 27 accident. Balloting closed at midnight Dec. 11, the day Woods announced he was taking an indefinite leave from golf.