I am going to make up an example with the verb clinch.
(ex) The five goals he scored last night for a total of eighty this season clinched The Player of the Year.
Can I use "clinched" in my sentence?
I would remove "The" from your sentence so it read "The five goals he scored last night...clinched Player of the Year."
Although "the player of the year" is proper usage when referring to the specific player who won that award, in your example sentence you are referring to the award and not the player. You could also use "...clinched (him) the award for the player of the year".
