Young, who capped a closing 65 with a 17-foot eagle putt to finish second at The Open behind Australian Cameron Smith, was selected for the Arnold Palmer Award over South Korea's Tom Kim and American Sahith Theegala, receiving 94 percent of the membership vote.

"I know Arnold Palmer obviously was a giant in the game of golf and we have him to thank for a lot of what we do today, what the PGA Tour is," Young, 25, told reporters ahead of this week's CJ Cup in Ridgeland, South Carolina.

"Just to be related to that in some small way is very cool. I know we had a very strong rookie class and I know it's voted by my peers, so it's a huge honour to be thought of in that way, just to kind of finish the year that way."

With his five second-place results, the bearded Young tied the most by any player in a single season over the last 40 years, with Vijay Singh in 2003 the last to accomplish the feat.

His most memorable moment of the year was when he duelled in the penultimate pairing with Smith for the Open title on St Andrews' Old Course, with the Queenslander

Young also recorded a pair of third-place finishes at the RBC Heritage and PGA Championship, falling one stroke out of a play-off in each.

With $US6.5 million ($A10.4 million) in earnings, Young made the most money in a single season by a rookie in PGA Tour history, surpassing the record previously held by Xander Schauffele, who made $US4.3 million ($A6.9 million) in 2016-17.