Raleigh golfer wins player of the year award

Paul Simson of Raleigh, an insurance executive who won four amateur golf tournaments in 2008, has won his third Carolinas Men's Player of the Year award and third consecutive Senior Player of the Year award.

The 57-year-old golfer won the weather-shortened Carolinas Senior Amateur Championship, National Senior Hall of Fame Championship, Eagle Point Amateur Invitational and the British Seniors Open Amateur Championship in Kent, England, his second British Seniors title in three years.

Patty Moore of Charlotte swept the women's awards for the second consecutive year. The 58-year old player has been named the Carolinas Women's Player of the Year three times and the Senior Women's Player of the Year five years in a row. Her 2008 season included victories at the Carolinas Women's Senior Championship, Carolinas Women's Match Play Championship and North Carolina Women's Senior Championship. Moore advanced to the round of 32 at the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Championship and qualified for the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Championship.

Haley Stephens, an 18-year-old high school senior from Greer, S.C., won her second straight Carolinas Junior Girls Player of the Year award. Mark Joye, an 18-year-old high school senior from Columbia, S.C., is the 2008 Carolinas Junior Boys Player of the Year.