The winner was originally chosen by a special panel of RTÉ journalists and editorial staff, but was selected by a public vote from a predetermined shortlist in 2016.
The oldest recipient of the award is Christy O'Connor Jnr, who won in 1989 aged 41.
Eamonn Darcy, Ronan Rafferty and Des Smyth, who won the Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1988, are the only non-individual winners of the award.
The most recent award was made in 2024 to double Olympic champion rower Paul O'Donovan.
There have not yet been any mixed-gender winners (unlike figure-skating couple Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in the British equivalent).