2025 Fried Egg Golf Awards

Welcome to the 2025 Fried Egg Golf Awards. It’s the perfect time to look back on what was a wild year in golf, and this year’s honors feature both serious and silly awards.

Men’s Player of the Year

Scottie Scheffler

While it’s true that Rory McIlroy made us feel things in 2025, Scottie Scheffler wins this argument with a combination of data and trophies. Victories in the PGA Championship and the Open Championship doubled his career major total and proved he can be just as dominant outside the comfy confines of Augusta National. In 20 starts, he finished in the top 10 an absurd 17 times, and he won six times overall. According to PGA Tour stats, Scheffler ranked first in scoring average in Round 1 (67.45), Round 2 (68.00), Round 3 (68.40), and Round 4 (68.10), becoming the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000 to lead the Tour in all four categories. McIlroy made the argument interesting with victories at the Players Championship and the Irish Open, and he was also the catalyst for a European Ryder Cup victory on American soil, but Scheffler’s consistency overwhelms the discussion. He beat McIlroy head-to-head in the Ryder Cup, and who can forget his team’s victory over McIlroy’s in the Optum Games. If Scheffler wins the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in 2026, he’ll join McIlroy as the seventh winner of the career Grand Slam. It’s clear we are watching one of the all-time greats, and it doesn’t even feel like he’s peaked yet, which is scary. -Kevin Van Valkenburg

Women’s Player of the Year

Jeeno Thitikul

Three wins, boatloads of cash, and a trophy case full of season-ending awards make it crystal clear that Jeeno Thitikul is the player of the year. We all know that doesn't tell the whole story of Jeeno's year. She had her elusive first major on a platter at Evian before Grace Kim's historic, ridiculous finish (more on that later). Jeeno will ring in the new year with the major monkey still on her back. Despite the close call at Evian, the discourse rolls on largely due to a troubling trend of playing very much unlike the No. 1 player in the world at the year's biggest events. Jeeno had just four finishes of T-24 or worse in 2025. Three of those were in majors, including her only missed cut of the year at the U.S. Women's Open. If Thitikul can play her best golf next year at the most important tournaments on the calendar, it would do wonders for the LPGA’s parity problem. -Meg Adkins

Worst Take of the Year

Phil Mickelson

Scottie Scheffler would, indeed, win before the Ryder Cup – six times, in fact, including two majors, the Memorial, and a playoff event. -Will Knights

Most Outstanding Achievement Nobody Talked About

Sungjae Im

Completing the career Grand Slam? A nice piece of history. Winning two majors in a single season? Happened literally last year. Even SOMEONE was bound to be the 1,000th unique winner on the PGA Tour. Only one man, though, did the impossible improbable. Sungjae Im made it to East Lake, complete with a 27th-place finish in the season-long FedEx Cup standings, all while placing 179th in Strokes Gained: Approach. If you were wondering, 180 players qualified for the Strokes Gained standings. How did Im make the Tour Championship while being the second-worst iron player on Tour? He evened out around the green (second in Strokes Gained) and played 28 times. Don't let your own poor approach play get you down in 2026! -PJ Clark

Men’s Breakout Player of the Year

J.J. Spaun

J.J. Spaun has been a solid pro golfer for nearly a decade now, but 2025 is the year he established himself as a top-notch player. His valiant effort at the Players Championship, where he finished runner-up to Rory McIlroy in a Monday playoff, foreshadowed the success that was on the way. Despite starting U.S. Open Sunday 5 over through six holes, Spaun rebounded and closed with one of the most memorable finishes in recent U.S. Open history, grabbing his first major championship. The win locked up a spot for Spaun on his first Ryder Cup team, where he’d post a 2-1 record. Perhaps he could’ve played another match. -Joseph LaMagna

Women’s Breakout Player of the Year

Miyu Yamashita

A year ago, Japan’s Miyu Yamashita was sitting atop the leaderboard at the final stage of LPGA Q-Series. She's now a major champion, earned Rookie of the Year honors, and is the fourth-ranked player in the world. Oh, and she gave her ROY acceptance speech in English. Overachieve much, Miyu? -Meg Adkins

Shots of the Year

Rory McIlroy

Given the gravity of the moment, I don’t think this one is debatable. Rory McIlroy’s approach shot into 15 on Sunday at Augusta National is one of the greatest shots in Masters history. It is the Shot of the Year. -Joseph LaMagna

Grace Kim

Grace Kim hit the shot of her life three times in 45 minutes en route to her first major title at the Evian Championship. When she thinks back on the day, this chip in the playoff is the shot that stands out. -Adam Woodard

F*** This Place Award

Shane Lowry

After saying, “F*** this place,” at three of four majors in 2025, Shane Lowry will be looking for the grand slam in 2026. -Austin Sapin

Job Creator of the Year

Collin Morikawa

While the jobs didn’t always last long, caddie positions were readily available on Collin Morikawa’s bag. He helped many people find work this year. -Will Knights

Most Exciting New Public Course

Poppy Ridge Golf Course (Livermore, CA)

Jay Blasi’s reconfiguration of this Northern California Golf Association-owned property has given California another standout public golf course. Get to Poppy Ridge if you’re anywhere within driving distance. -Garrett Morrison

Most Exciting Public-Course Renovation Project

Buffalo Dunes Golf Course (Garden City, KS)

After several years of community-driven work, this sandhills muni now has 18 renovated greens in play. Huge kudos to superintendent Clay Payne and consulting architects Todd Clark and Zach Varty for pulling off an ambitious yet economical project. -Garrett Morrison

I Threw Up on Myself Award

PGA of America

From the unceremonious unveiling of PGA Frisco at the KPMG Women’s PGA, in which the finishing stretch had to be re-routed due to infrastructural constraints on a golf course that was built from scratch, to nonsensical embarrassing statements about the equipment rollback at the PGA Championship, to Keegan Bradley being put in a no-win situation as Ryder Cup captain, to awful crowd control at Bethpage in which the first tee emcee participated in a “F*** You, Rory!” chant, to PGA of America President Don Rea showing more awareness of Eminem lyrics than the profanities being shouted at European players on the grounds, it was a year to forget for the PGA of America. I feel like I missed a few things. -Joseph LaMagna

Reply Guy of the Year

Andy Johnson

In the midst of a surge of Chicago Bears interviews, our own founder, Andy Johnson, let loose on the Twitter machine. -Will Knights

A.J. Hawk of the Year

Kevin Van Valkenburg

After being brought in for Part IV of the Shotgun Start’s Year in Review, our very own Kevin Van Valkenburg was left on the sidelines, unable to get to the tournament he was brought on to discuss. -Will Knights

Tournament Venue of the Year

Cypress Point Club (Pebble Beach, CA)

An obvious choice. This past September’s Walker Cup offered golf fans a rare glimpse of Alister MacKenzie’s masterpiece on the Pacific Ocean. And it didn’t hurt that the weather was, for the most part, decent (never a guarantee on the Monterey Peninsula). -Garrett Morrison

Most Improved Tournament Venue

The Lake Course at the Olympic Club (San Francisco, CA)

I’ll be honest: the stern, continually reverse-cambering Lake Course, host of the 2025 U.S. Amateur, is never going to be among my favorites, but boy did Gil Hanse’s recent renovation improve it. There’s more room to play now, and the bunkers no longer pose an injury risk to older members. -Garrett Morrison

Worst Nickname of the Year

Tom Sim

Sometimes you don’t have to say anything, Matt Barrie. -Will Knights

Feud of the Year

The Chip Monk vs. The Short Game Chef

Who knew two of Instagram’s most famous short game gurus – Joe Mayo and Parker McLachlin – would be shading each other like professional wrestlers cutting Monday Night Raw promos? McLachlin would probably insist this is a one-sided feud, but Mayo would disagree, having fired off a couple “Heard you been talking shit!” missives on Instagram late at night. Doesn’t matter whether you’re steep or shallow, this is good content. -Kevin Van Valkenburg

Rules Moment of the Year

Shane Lowry, Open Championship

Shane Lowry’s strange two-stroke penalty on a practice swing at Royal Portrush. Lowry didn’t see the ball move, but a television camera happened to capture what appeared to be a tiny infraction. Lowry was told about the penalty in the middle of his round, which suddenly put him on the cut line. He was able to make a birdie coming in to secure weekend tee times, but it raised some unanswerable ethical questions: How can you know a ball moved if it isn’t visible to the naked eye? What happens if a player’s ball moves, he doesn’t see it, but he’s not on camera? How can you get a two-stroke penalty for playing your ball from the wrong spot if you didn’t see it move? No one had any good answers. -Kevin Van Valkenburg

Setup Blunder of the Year

Ryder Cup

The Black Course at Bethpage State Park – you know, the one with the sign about how extremely difficult it is – lacked a bit (or most) of its renowned teeth for this year's Ryder Cup. Course setup for the event has become a hot topic of late, with the home team deciding on things like rough length and fairway lines, something that clearly impacted the results in France. But this year's neutered approach not only didn't favor the home team, but Captain Keegan Bradley also admitted that it backfired, allowing guys like Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm to whale away into the sub-three-inch rough that played more like an extension of the fairway. Europe capitalized, turning Bethpage Black into something that looked and felt more like a weekend Scramble. -Cameron Hurdus

The European Mind Cannot Comprehend Award

Masters Champions Dinner

The wood-fried cowboy ribeye steaks that Scottie Scheffler served for the second iteration of his champions dinner at the Masters were “the size of footballs,” according to Sir Nick Faldo. And the warm chocolate chip cookie skillet with vanilla ice cream had about “half a pound of sugar.” Faldo speculated that Scheffler was trying to put everyone to sleep so they wouldn’t be out practicing Wednesday. -Kevin Van Valkenburg

Most Dangerous Pasta of the Year

Ravioli

The year began with an injury from the top-ranked player in the world after Scottie Scheffler cut his hand on a wine glass while making ravioli around Christmas time. Gnocchi made a good run but was unable to come out on top. -Will Knights