Woods, Shin, Roberts honored by Golf Writers Association

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Tiger Woods, Jiyai Shin and Loren Roberts were honored as the best players on their respective tours by golf writers.

HOUSTON -- Tiger Woods, Jiyai Shin and Loren Roberts have been named 2009 Players of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America.

It is the first GWAA POY award for both Shin and Roberts. It is the 10th time in the last 13 years Woods has won the award. All three players will be honored at the GWAA's Annual Awards Dinner April 7, 2010 in Augusta, Ga.

Woods received 84 percent of the vote (168 votes) to 10 percent for Steve Stricker (20) and six percent (13) for PGA Champion Y.E. Yang. Shin's margin was the narrowest .She received 52 percent of the vote (105) to 42 percent for Ochoa (85) and six percent (11) for Cristie Kerr.

Roberts collected 55 percent of the vote (111) to 39 percent for Bernhard Langer (78) and five percent for Fred Funk (10).

Voting for the GWAA the awards opened Nov. 24 and 48.75 percent of the ballots were cast before the news of Woods' automobile accident near his home in Florida broke at approx 2 p.m. CST Nov. 27.

The balloting closed at midnight Dec. 11, the same night Woods announced in a statement he was taking an indefinite leave from the PGA TOUR. Woods admitted on his Web site that he had let his family down and was stepping away from competitive golf to work on saving his marriage and his family.

Woods acknowledged in the statement "transgressions" that he said were not "true to my values."

Woods underwent major knee surgery in June 2008 and came back to win six times on the PGA TOUR in 2009 and seven times overall. He also topped the money list for the ninth time and won his second FedExCup in three years.

Shin won three times in 2009 and was the LPGA's Rookie of the Year. She lost the LPGA's Player of the Year award to Ochoa by just one point in a race that went down to the final round of the LPGA Tour Championship. Shin led the money list and was second in scoring average.

Roberts won three times, including the Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale, and won the Charles Schwab Cup for the second time in three years. He finished second on the money list behind Langer, who won four times.

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