New World Order: Rookies start testing their mettle at Sony this week
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| At 20, Seung-yul Noh has already played in six majors, making five cuts. (US Presswire) |
Ah, fresh meat.
This week at the Sony Open in Hawaii, exactly two dozen fresh-faced newbies will take their first baby steps toward establishing a career on the biggest traveling circus in professional sports.
We're here to separate the clowns from the midgets from the elephants.
Purely by comparison, it's going to be difficult for this year's crop of Qualifying School and Nationwide Tour rookies to match up favorably with the 2011 class, which might have been the best ever as it relates to depth. Sure, it helped that generational stars like Jim Furyk, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson took a season-long siesta -- combining for one victory -- and opened the doors for an infusion of new blood. But the rookies still had to deliver the goods when it mattered, and frequently, they did.
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Technically, six different PGA Tour rookies amassed a total of seven wins in 2011, including a pair of major championships, plucked by Charl Schwartzel and Keegan Bradley. Now, nobody really considers the former to be a true rookie, since he was an established European Tour player already, but Bradley was a front-runner for top-player honors after collecting two wins as a freshman.
The general feeling on the Nationwide was that this year's class of graduates wasn't nearly as deep as its predecessor, which included the likes of Bradley, Brendan Steele and Chris Kirk, who all won PGA Tour events in 2011. But given the parity of last year, that's by no means a scorecard that has already been turned in and logged into the scoring computer.
We certainly won't obsess over the perceived talent drop-off from last year's rookie crop, mostly because the first-timers of 2012 are every bit as interesting as any in recent memory. As for their talent level, well, check back in November.
With 24 rookies set to make their debut this week at Waialae Country Club, here’s a subjective list of the 10 most talented, if not most interesting, prospects as we've handicapped them heading into the new season. Let's see who best handles the on-course hazing.
1. Bud Cauley
Fact file: One of my favorite moments of 2011 came when Ernie Els turned to Cauley as they played the Frys.com Open and asked, "So, Bud, when are you turning pro?" Cauley had been a pro for several months by that time, after finishing a fine college career at Alabama. By week’s end, Cauley would finish ahead of Els, earning enough money on his allotted seven sponsor exemptions to crack the top 125 in earnings. He thus became the seventh player to earn his tour card on exemptions without having to go to Q-school, joining Gary Hallberg, Scott Verplank, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore. Cauley seems a bit underpowered at 5-7 and 150 pounds, but he is the only guy on this list who has already proven he can play with PGA Tour-caliber players. So he gets pole position. Plus, he won't have to deal with any cultural issues, unlike a handful of the South Korean rookies.
2. Sang-moon Bae
Fact file: It's pretty easy to list Bae as the No. 2 pick on this list. In fact, it's arguable that we are ripping him off, since he makes his debut this week ranked No. 30 in the world based on his play in Asia over the past few seasons. Bae already has amassed an impressive 11 international victories at age 25, all of them in Asia, and now he gets to see whether the world-ranking number assigned to those wins was bloated, as many have long alleged. Historically, it’s taken a while for players from the Japan and Asian tours to make a dent on American soil.
3. Seung-yul Noh
Fact file: Another seasoned veteran and one of the youngest major-tour players on the planet. Noh started making waves as a teen, winning in Malaysia on the European Tour in 2010 and jumping onto that tour with both feet. Since the win in early 2010, he's tallied five more top-10s in Europe and seven more on the various Asian circuits. His world ranking had taken a hit, falling from No. 64 at the start of 2011 to No. 107 entering this season. He's played in six majors already, making five cuts.
4. Danny Lee
Fact file: Lee is a soft-spoken native of South Korea who moved to New Zealand, which makes him the only Kiwian on tour. If the name rings familiar, Lee has already won on the European Tour -- the youngest in history at the time and the second amateur ever -- and has played in a Masters, where he logged two rounds alongside Tiger Woods. A smooth, polished player, he has already played full seasons on the European and Nationwide and might be the best prospect on the list in terms of upside. Given the three names listed ahead of him here, that’s a big compliment. A rather shy kid, how soon can he shake off the stage fright?
5. Harris English
Fact file: Only the third amateur in history to win a Nationwide Tour event, English nearly won again a week later when he was edged at the end by Danny Lee. A college stud from Georgia, which has been producing top players in droves of late, English played on the Walker Cup team last fall, turned pro afterward and cruised through Q-school to earn his card. At 6-3, 185 pounds, he has the frame for the modern game and is more than long enough to play with the big boys.
6. Jason Kokrak
Fact file: Stop me if you have heard this one before -- Kokrak stands 6-4 and weight 225 pounds, and makes golf balls whimper when he makes solid contact. Or even when he doesn't. The Canadian-born masher led the Nationwide in driving distance last year at 318.6 yards a whack and was a respectable 32nd in putting, proving he isn't just a dead-pull hitter, to use a baseball analogy. He's made two PGA Tour starts in his career and is a bit of an unknown compared to others on this list with more big-league experience, but there's no substitute for power in the modern game. Ask Bubba Watson or J.B. Holmes.
7. Ted Potter
Fact file: You might have heard of these former Hooters Tour stars -- Chad Campbell and Zach Johnson, both former Ryder Cuppers. Well, Potter was the top Hooters player twice but has not been able to establish any pedigree on the PGA or Nationwide circuits, despite years of trying. Potter, a lefty, turned pro right out of high school and has played the mini-tours for nearly a decade. In his first year on the Nationwide in 2004, living in a camper and using a high school pal as his caddie, he missed every single cut. Not many guys would stick with it after going 0 for 24 in reaching the weekend, but the gritty Potter has picked up some perspective since and finished second on the Nationwide in earnings last year. In terms of moxie, Potter is a more polished version of Tommy Gainey, a guy from a blue-collar background who aspired to play with the silver spoon kids.
8. Erik Compton
Fact file: Where to begin? The first heart transplant? The near-fatal heart attack? The second heart transplant? The multiple television stories that have already aired about his amazing medical journey? Nearly making it to Q-School finals a matter of months after the second transplant? Compton was a college standout at Georgia who played most of his career on the Canadian and Nationwide tours before his second transplant in 2008, which gave him another new lease on life, literally. Compton has played well in cameo appearances on the big tour since the second transplant, and if his conditioning holds up, could very well be in the mix to keep his card later this year. He will certainly, and rightly, have a slew of folks pulling for him.
9. Richard Lee
Fact file: Nobody made it to the tour in more emphatic fashion, which is enough of a reason to salute him here. Outside the number with two holes left at Q-school last month, he made two consecutive birdies to finish T24, securing his card for 2012. Lee, who attended Washington, was a two-time All-American who got married at age 18 and already has a daughter. One of an impressive four players on this list of Korean descent, though he was born in Chicago.
10. Billy Hurley
Fact file: Hurley dropped by the office this week while at the Sony Open, visiting his old friends and associates from when he was a working stiff. The hook here is that the office was the U.S. Navy destroyer parked at Pearl Harbor. Hurley, a former 2005 Walker Cup player, had to put golf on hold while fulfilling his Naval Academy commitment, which he served as a lieutenant, often on patrol in the Persian Gulf, always a global hot spot. Hurley, not a power player, is reputed to be scary smooth with a putter in hand. For a guy who served in the gulf, a piddly little four-footer doesn’t amount to much pressure at all. It's debatable whether Hurley is the best player among the rookie crop, but he's certainly the smartest. The guy actually taught classes at the Naval Academy.
