Eric Cole becomes the oldest Rookie of the Year winner since 2004

The PGA Tour surprised the golf world by naming Eric Cole as the Rookie of The Year for the 2023 season. Cole beat out majority favorite Ludvig Aberg to become the oldest winner of the award since 2004, at the age of 35.

The Arnold Palmer Award, which credits Eric Cole as PGA Tour Rookie Of The Year, was presented to him on Wednesday, January 3, as part of the activities leading up to The Sentry, the first event of the 2024 season. Cole is the oldest player to receive the award since 2004 (Todd Hamilton, age 39).

Eric Cole received 51% of the votes and defeated Aberg and the other two candidates, Nico Echavarria and Vincent Norrman.

Eric Cole is an example of perseverance in professional golf. This stage of his career began in 2009, but it was not until 2020 that he was able to play a full season at a higher level, namely on the Korn Ferry Tour.

During his ten-year-long wait, Eric Cole competed on the Minor League Golf Tour, a third-tier circuit where he won 56 times but was never able to advance to the next level.

However, after the 2022 season, Eric Cole earned his PGA Tour card, and his golf career changed forever. At 34, he had the best year of his life as a professional player, with 14 Top 25s, including seven Top 10s and two second-place finishes.

He also finished in the FedEx Cup Top 50, which granted him the Tour exemption for the 2024 season and qualified him for the eight Signature Events of the season.

A large portion of fans felt that the award should go to Ludvig Aberg, who had less than half as many starts as Cole but managed eight Top 10s, including one win.

Eric Cole was not the only award winner at the Kapalua Resort

Scottie Scheffler joined Cole at the awards gala, as he received the Jack Nicklaus Award recognizing him as the 2023 PGA Tour Player Of The Year. Scheffler is the first player to win the award back-to-back since Tiger Woods' achievement of winning it three times in a row between 2005 and 2007.

The vote for Player Of The Year was much closer, with Scheffler taking 38% of the vote to beat Wyndham Clark, Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy, and Jon Rahm.

This decision was more difficult to predict as Jon Rahm was the winningest player of the season (4 wins, one major) while Viktor Hovland was the FedEx Cup champion.

Scheffler had a spectacular 2022-2023 season, with 21 Top 25s in 23 tournaments played that included 17 Top 10s and two victories. In addition, the Texan strung together a streak of 18 consecutive Top 12s between November 2022 and July 2023.