MLB great Shohei Ohtani Since his MLB debut in 2018, he has been racking up critical acclaim. The Los Angeles Angels-turned-Dodgers star’s achievements are so exceptional that he is catching up to golf great Tiger Woods in at least one area.
With another AP award this week, Ohtani tied a record partially held by Woods, and he did so by defeating current golf world-beater Scottie Scheffler.
Here’s what you need to know.
Ohtani beats Scottie Scheffler for AP Male Athlete of the Year
In the 2025 MLB season, Ohtani won his fourth MVP award. It was the third straight year he earned MLB’s top honor, with the last two coming as a Dodger.
In his two years with the Dodgers, Ohtani has justified his mega-contract, which gave him the highest AAV salary in professional sports, by winning back-to-back World Series titles.
He is only 31 and is already in talks with greats from other sports, such as Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and of course Woods.
On Tuesday, Ohtani won the 2025 Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year award. It was the fourth time he received that honor, tying the record for most wins.
Woods, Lebron James and Lance Armstrong are the only other athletes to win the Male Athlete of the Year award four times in their careers.
According to the AP, Ohtani earned his second straight Athlete of the Year award by receiving 29 of 47 votes from AP sportswriters.
One professional golfer also received votes, but far fewer than the winner.
Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, earned two votes for his two major wins in 2025. That’s the same number of votes as 2025 NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received.
Interestingly, although Ohtani, Woods, Armstrong and James won the most Male Athlete of the Year awards, they do not top the list when female athletes are included.
The award goes to another golfer, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who won the award six times in her illustrious career.
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