Casa De Campo Resort

The par 3s at Teeth of the Dog are among the world's best.

NEW YORK (AP) — Winning the final PGA Tour event of the year could lead to Davis Love III winning his first award on a vote of the players.

The 16-man Players Advisory Council and four player-directors on the PGA Tour policy board have nominated Love, Rocco Mediate and Dudley Hart as candidates for comeback player of the year.

Limited by back injuries, Mediate lost a 19-hole playoff to Tiger Woods in the U.S. Open and had another top 10 at the Memorial to finish 74th on the money list, his best year since 2003.

Hart missed most of last year during his wife's illness tending to his triplets, played this year on a family crisis extension and made it to the Tour Championship for the first time since 1999. He had six top-10s, including a runner-up finish at the BMW Championship which enabled him to finish 12th in the FedEx Cup.

Love is the only winner among the candidates, going 64-64 on the weekend at Disney for his 20th career victory. He was recovering from ankle surgery that kept him out of golf for four months and out of contention until the final month of the season. All three of his top 10s came during the Fall Series.

A more compelling vote might be for rookie of the year.

The five candidates are Dustin Johnson, Chez Reavie, Andres Romero, Kevin Streelman and Marc Turnesa, with all but Streelman winning a PGA Tour event. Reavie (Canada) and Romero (New Orleans) won events that awarded full FedEx Cup points.

No rookie had a better season than Romero, the Argentine who made the cut in all four majors (with top 10s in two of them) and finished 36th on the money list, the highest of the rookie nominees. He also was the only rookie at the Tour Championship.

It will be interesting to see whether players regard him as a pure rookie. Romero, 27, has played on the European Tour and nearly won the British Open last year at Carnoustie.

---=

SERGIO'S YEAR: Sergio Garcia won a career-high four times in 2001 (twice each on the PGA and European tours), although this is considered his best season ever. The best evidence comes from the world ranking, and not just because the Spaniard is now No. 2.

Garcia earned 400.62 points this year, second only to Tiger Woods.

His only PGA Tour victory came at The Players Championship, but he also won the Castello Masters on his home course in Spain and the HSBC Champions against a strong field in China. He finished at No. 4 on the PGA Tour money list and No. 9 on the Order of Merit in Europe, and he won the Vardon Trophy for lowest adjusted scoring average.

But his best golf came in the last three months.

Starting with the PGA Championship, where he tied for second at Oakland Hills, Garcia played eight times and finished out of the top five only once, a tie for 20th at the BMW Championship in St. Louis. He lost in a playoff at The Barclays and at the Tour Championship.