Woods is US Tour player of the year

Thousand Oaks, California:

Tiger Woods won US PGA Tour player of the year on Tuesday for the eighth time, and the numbers looked familiar. He won multiple majors for the fourth time, and more tournaments than anyone else. Woods won his first tournament of the year, then finished his season with six consecutive victories. In between, he disappeared from golf for more than two months to mourn the death of his father. "I knew I had to go through - like anyone - the grieving process, and I had never done anything like that before," Woods said. "The hardest thing for me to do was play golf. Usually, people go to work to get away from a loss like that. But that's when I thought of my dad. He introduced me to the game of golf. He taught me a lot of life lessons on the golf course. "When I came back and started working on my fundamentals ... I learned them from my dad." The award - also called the Jack Nicklaus Trophy - is decided by a vote of the players, although the PGA Tour does not disclose the results or even who finished second. The award began in 1990, and no one else has won it more than twice. Woods, who won eight times, also won the Arnold Palmer Award for leading the money list at $9.9 million, and he won the Byron Nelson Award for the lowest scoring average at 68.11. The tour's scoring award only requires a minimum of 50 rounds, and Woods played 55. Jim Furyk won the Vardon Trophy from the PGA of America with an average of 68.86. That award requires at least 60 rounds. South Africa's Trevor Immelman was voted rookie of the year after winning the Western Open and finishing seventh on the money list with more than $3.8 million, highest money ranking by any PGA Tour rookie. Comeback player of the year went to Steve Stricker, who failed to get out of the second stage of Q-school last year. A three-time PGA Tour winner, Stricker had to rely on sponsor's exemptions and played only four times the first four months of the season. (AP)