Rookie of the Year voters face interesting dilemma

ATLANTA – If history is any indication, Sungjae Im is a lock for PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year when voting by his peers for the Arnold Palmer Award commences next week.

He’s the lone rookie in this week’s field at the TOUR Championship, meaning he has more FedExCup points than his fellow rookies. In the FedExCup era, no one has won Rookie of the Year without having the most points – and every year a lone rookie has reached East Lake, he’s been named Rookie of the Year.

But the issue with Im, the 21-year-old from Korea, is that he hasn’t won this season; his best finish is a tie for third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. He also has six other top-10s.

Meanwhile, five of his fellow rookies have won – Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Champ, Adam Long and Martin Trainer. Not since 2011 have more rookie wins been posted in a single season.

So the voters – in this case, TOUR members – will need to make a decision as they weigh their choice for Rookie of the Year: Season-long consistency but no win … or a win but less consistency/fewer starts?

It’s the first time voters in the FedExCup era have had to weigh such polar opposites.

“You have to look at each case differently. I don’t think there’s one overall criteria,” said Brandt Snedeker. “I haven’t looked at it too closely yet. I’ll look at it after this week and see how things shake out.”

Snedeker won Rookie of the Year honors in 2007, the first year of the FedExCup. He won the Wyndham Championship that season and was the only rookie to reach East Lake. Pretty easy choice there.

He’s one of five former Rookie of the Year winners playing at East Lake this week. The others are Charles Howell III (2001), Marc Leishman (2009), Rickie Fowler (2010) and Xander Schauffele (2017). Howell, Leishman and Fowler did not win during their rookie seasons; Schauffele won twice, including the TOUR Championship.

No rookie won a tournament in Leishman’s season, but he had three top-10s that season, with his best finish a tie for second at the BMW Championship. That propelled him to East Lake, as he moved from 67th to 16th in the FedExCup standings. It’s no surprise he values trips to the TOUR Championship.

“If you win, I guess it depends on which tournament it is. Or if you get to the TOUR Championship, that means a fair bit because it means you’ve had a great year,” Leishman said when asked which factors weigh the most. “If you end up at the TOUR Championship, that would probably mean more to me than a win. Getty here is pretty good. I think that makes a big difference.”

Of course, Morikawa and Wolff could argue that they didn’t play enough events and it was simply an issue of opportunity. Both turned pro after their collegiate seasons, each making just seven starts prior to the FedExCup Playoffs. Thanks to their respective victories (Wolff at the 3M Open, Morikawa at the Barricuda Championship), it was enough to make the top 125. Wolff was eliminated after the first Playoffs event at Liberty National, and Morikawa was eliminated last week at Medinah.

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Meanwhile, Im has been the PGA TOUR’s workhorse this season. This week’s start is his 35th this season, the most of any player. Just three others played as many as 30 (Tom Hoge 32, Kelly Kraft 31, K.H. Lee 30). Of the two full-season rookies who won, Champ made 26 starts and Trainer made 25.

When Im finishes his four rounds this week, he’ll have played 118 rounds this season – 18 more than any other player. The 29 other players at East Lake have averaged 78 rounds this season.

That heavy workload helped him rack up FedExCup points, but his points-per-event pales in comparison to Morikawa and Wolff. For regular-season events, Morikawa ranked fourth on TOUR (111.4 average), Wolff ranked 12th (85.9) and Im ranked 61st (34.2). Add the first two Playoffs events, and the differences are reduced – Morikawa ranked 13th, Wolff ranked 23rd and Im ranked 51st after Medinah.

But should Im get penalized in the voters’ minds for playing a full season – one good enough to reach East Lake – while Morikawa and Wolff were still in school?

“He’s played a lot of golf – he’s definitely committed to a very packed schedule,” Schauffele said. “He’s played great. Every week – his last names only two letters, so I always see it on the leaderboard, and it’s always on top.

“He didn’t win, or hasn’t won yet, and there’s always the talks with Morikawa and Wolff and them winning and he hasn’t. But if you look at the consistency – you heard it from so many players. If you make it to East Lake, you’ve had a good year.

“Obviously, those two other boys didn’t have enough starts to make it here, and if they did, it would be ridiculous. In my mind, it would be hard to vote for anyone else just because he’s here and they’re not.”

In 2008, Chez Reavie was part of a rookie class that also included Dustin Johnson. The winner that year, though, was Andres Romero, who won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, had top-10s in two majors and advanced to East Lake. Reavie also won that year – the RBC Canadian Open – but did not qualify for the season’s biggest events.

“He was in all the WGC events and majors because of his world ranking because he played in Europe,” Reavie said of Romero. “That was my argument there. How is he a rookie when he’s in all the big tournaments and I’m not? I had to play my way into everything. He beat me by 50 points or something. I wasn’t too happy.”

Reavie, as you might have gathered, values the grind of a full PGA TOUR season.

“You look at what Sungjae did this year, making it here,” said Reavie after his Friday 6-under 64 that included his 21st career ace (five of those on TOUR). “It’s unbelievable. I have a hard time not giving the Rookie of the Year to somebody who makes it to the TOUR Championship.

“I understand Matt Wolff’s a great player, so is Collin. They both won and played great. So it’s a tough one. Just have to see how it turns out. You’ve got a great case either way.”

One sign of Im’s consistency is that his seven top-10s came in five different months – October, February, March (3), June and August. That’s the kind of start-to-finish run that impresses another voter, Jason Kokrak.

“Those other guys (Morikawa, Wolff), played half a season,” Kokrak said. “They did win but I think it’s hard for those guys to win Rookie of the Year when they only have seven starts. They played incredible golf, which is great. But what Sungjae has done this year, I think, is more respectable than coming out and getting hot for three weeks.”

Added Snedeker: “I know Sungjae’s the only rookie who made it here, so that’s kind of a leg up in my opinion.”

So has Im – who is well off the pace through two rounds this week – done enough without a win? He hopes so.

“I understand it’s voted by the players,” said Im, who won Rookie of the Year honors on the Korn Ferry Tour and could join Stewart Cink as the only players to win ROY honors on both tours in successive years. “I think I have a great chance, being the only rookie to advance to the TOUR Championship.”

History is on his doorstep. Not only would he be the first Korean-born player to become Rookie of the Year, he’d also be the first player from Asia. The award was introduced in 1990.

“If I received the honor,” Im said, “it would be incredibly significant for me and something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.”