But unlike the Tour’s announcement of Scheffler that came in the past week to much fanfare, and a surprise awarding for the Masters champion on EPSN’s football coverage, the PGA of America’s Player of the Year was awarded to Smith, with little in the way of publicity.

Awarded not by vote, but a points system, the PGA of America, who run the PGA Championship, gives out its annual award at a similar time to the PGA Tour each year, with different results not uncommon. Jon Rahm won the PGA’s award in 2021, while Patrick Cantlay took out the PGA Tour’s gong.

But unlike when the Spanish former World No.1 was crowned, there was no social media posts of Smith’s win from the organisation that awards it, and little evidence of the achievement beyond a story posted to the pga.com website.

It was a close-run race between Smith and Scheffler for the title, with the Queenslander coming out on top with 96 points to Scheffler’s 94, while McIlroy received 62 points to finish in third. The Northern Irishman did however take out the Vardon Trophy for the lowest adjusted scoring average with 68.670 his average to Smith’s 69.203 in second.

Smith received 60 of his points for his three victories at The Open, The Players and Sentry Tournament of Champions, while he garnered 18 for finishing second on the money list prior to the Tour Championship and 18 more for his Vardon Trophy runner-up.

Smith is the fourth Australian to win the PGA of America’s Player of the Year honour, following Bruce Crampton, Steve Elkington and Greg Norman, the Aussie World No.3’s name being added to the list at the same time as he signed with the Norman-led LIV.

Smith will tee it up this week at the Saudi-backed Tour’s Chicago event at Rich Harvest Farms.