The Golf Digest Awards 2008
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2008 In Review
Edited By Ron Kaspriske
Photos from left: Darren Carroll (1,4), Getty Images (2,5,6), Charles Laberge (3)
For 54 years we've been honoring the best players in the game, and for the first time since 2004, our top honor goes to someone whose name isn't Woods. Ireland's Padraig Harrington (above) is the World Player of the Year after winning the British Open, the PGA Championship and finishing T-5 at the Masters. His scoring average of 69.28 was third on the PGA Tour. "I got the breaks during the year when I needed them," Harrington said. "Now I can sit back, reflect on the year and try and take it all in." To see who won our other awards, see below.
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No.1 Men's Amateur
- Danny Lee
- 18 / Rotorua, New Zealand
Lee supplanted Tiger Woods as the youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur (18 years, one month). The South Korean-born New Zealander also won the Western Amateur.
AMATEUR MEN
1 Danny Lee
2 Rickie Fowler
3 Kyle Stanley
4 Adam Mitchell
5 Erik Flores
6 Billy Horschel
7 Zack Sucher
8 Mike Van Sickle
9 Rory Hie
10 Sihwan Kim
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Mickey Wright Award (most LPGA Tour wins)
- Lorena Ochoa
- 27 / Guadalajara, Mexico
Ochoa followed her eight-victory season in 2007 with seven wins in '08, including her second major (Kraft Nabisco Championship). Ochoa had 17 top-10 finishes in 22 events and led the LPGA Tour in driving distance (269.3 yards), scoring average (69.70) and greens in regulation (71.6 percent). "I think that it has been a better year than last year be-cause a lot of things have happened, and it's been more like an up-and-down year," she says. "And you learn a lot from that."
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No. 1 Senior Women's Amateur
- Diane Lang
- 53 / Weston, Fla.
For the third time in four years, Lang won the USGA Senior Women's Amateur. She is 22-1 in matches since becoming eligible for the event at 50. The first Jamaican to play on the LPGA Tour (1984), Lang regained her amateur status in 1989.
HONORABLE MENTION
Carolyn Creekmore, Joan Higgins, Jackie Little, Patty Moore, Carol Semple Thompson
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Most Improved Player, PGA Tour
- Camilo Villegas
- 22 / Scottsdale
He jumped from 56th in the World Golf Ranking in 2007 to seventh in '08, mostly because of his consecutive victories at the BMW and Tour championships. Villegas missed only three cuts all season, and his $4.4 million in earnings in 22 events was more than he made in his previous 65.
‘I really felt comfortable this year. It made a huge difference in how I played.’
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