Let’s Meet the 2015-2016 PGA Tour Rookie Class
By Ryan Young
With the PGA Tour season firing back up this week at the Frys.com Open, I’d thought it’s the perfect time to take a look at the PGA Tour Rookies who will be battling it out with the big boys as they try to make a name for themselves on the PGA Tour.
Before we get started, let’s take a look at the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year qualifications, just to establish a baseline for who is eligible as we progress through the season. First, the PGA Tour ROY is voted on by members of the PGA Tour and announced after the Tour Championship. Daniel Berger was your 2014-2015 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year with some thinking Justin Thomas should have won that honor. Second, in order to be eligible for PGA Tour ROY at the end of next season, you must have played in at least 15 events throughout the year. A lot of the rookies get several tournaments in during the Fall because there’s more spots available since the bigger names take off until January.
For the 2015-2016 PGA Tour season, there are 17 rookies who have earned status through several avenues. Nine of the 17 rookies secured their PGA Tour cards during the Web.com regular season. This means they won enough money to land in the top 25 of the regular season money list. Six of the 17 earned their cards during the Web.com Tour Finals. The remaining two are playing this year again as rookies on medical exemptions.
Currently ten of the 17 rookies are in the field this week at the Frys.com Open. As we progress through this season, I plan to track these 17 rookies and create a ranking system to see who might be the leading contender for PGA Tour ROY by year’s end.
Let’s meet the 17 rookies on the PGA Tour this year.
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