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The Five: Meet the five players vying for Rookie of the Year honors

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The Five: Meet the five players vying for Rookie of the Year honors
    Written by Paul Hodowanic @PaulHodowanic

    With only two weeks before the end of the regular season, the race for the Rookie of the Year honors has reached a critical stage. There is no runaway winner – and which rookies can qualify for the playoffs and improve their FedExCup ranking will prove pivotal in determining the eventual Arnold Palmer Award winner at the end of the FedExCup Fall.

    Cameron Young won the 2022 Rookie of the Year award over the likes of Tom Kim and Sahith Theegala. Will Zalatoris, Scottie Scheffler, Sungjae Im and Aaron Wise round out the last five winners of the Arnold Palmer Award, given out to the TOUR’s top rookie. This week, The Five looks at this year’s crowded group of rookies and who could emerge from the pack to join an illustrious group of Rookie of the Year winners.

    Eric Cole

    FedExCup rank: 43rd

    Cole has amassed quite the season thus far. From a prolific winner on the mini tours to a near-win at The Honda Classic in February, the 35-year-old’s unconventional path to the PGA TOUR has culminated in a splendid rookie campaign.

    The highest-ranked rookie in the FedExCup standings, Cole has amassed eight top 25s and three top 10s. The first of those close finishes came at The Honda Classic, where he lost to Chris Kirk in a playoff but maintained his spot inside the top 10 of the leaderboard all week and narrowly missed out on an improbable first win on TOUR.

    It proved to be much more than a one-week run, though. Cole finished T5 at the Mexico Open at Vidanta and T6 at the RBC Canadian Open. He has had a knack for playing well in the season’s most significant events, too.

    He made the cut in both his major championship appearances, finishing T15 at the PGA Championship and T39 at the U.S. Open. He made the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship and shot 69-68 on the weekend to finish T27. He’s added two more top 25s at Designated events, finishing T24 at both the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and the Travelers Championship.

    Eric Cole overcomes obstacles to live out PGA TOUR dream

    “It’s one thing to be playing well,” Cole told PGATOUR.com in July, “but to have that feeling of being comfortable on the PGA TOUR and on the big stage is something that’s not as easy to get. But as you start to play better, it almost creates a scenario where you’re playing better, so your confidence is higher and you’re more comfortable.”

    All the while, Cole has maintained the ethos that helped him rise up the professional golf ranks. In the midst of playing ten straight weeks on TOUR, Cole returned to (and won) the final Frank B. Fuhrer Jr. Invitational, a mini-tour event that once kept his career afloat.

    The worries he had back in 2014 when he paid the entry fee for the tournament on a credit card are long gone. He’s made more than $3 million this year – and is on the precipice of joining an illustrious group of Rookie of the Year winners.

    Taylor Montgomery

    FedExCup rank: 47th

    The summer has not gone how Montgomery expected. The UNLV alum was the frontrunner for the Arnold Palmer Award after the first five months of the season – for good reason.

    A solo third in his season debut at the Fortinet Championship sparked a streak of five consecutive top-15 finishes. He was inside the top 10 of the FedExCup standings through January and rose to 51st in the world rankings after beginning the season at No. 136.

    “I'm happy with the way that I've started,” Montgomery said during The American Express, where he finished fifth, “but I definitely don't feel like a rookie.”

    But the win that seemed destined to come hasn’t materialized, and the consistency displayed over the season's first two months has fallen by the wayside. Montgomery has missed his last three cuts and hasn’t improved his FedExCup ranking since a T22 at the Valero Texas Open in April.

    Yet despite the dip in play, Montgomery is just 52 points behind Cole in the FedExCup standings and is comfortably inside the top 70 with two weeks left until the playoffs. One strong showing between the 3M Open and the Wyndham Championship would go a long way in locking up a top 50 spot, which includes exemptions into the Designated events in 2024.

    Thomas Detry

    FedExCup rank: 48th

    A DP World Tour veteran, Detry jumped to the PGA TOUR this year after earning his card through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

    The 30-year-old has acclimated quite well to the full-time U.S. slate. He made his first nine cuts on TOUR, which included a runner-up at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, a T9 at the Sanderson Farms Championship and a T12 at the Fortinet Championship.

    “I think a win is just around the corner,” Detry said after the runner-up finish in Bermuda.

    The Belgian’s strong play hasn’t culminated with a win yet, but he will have another year on TOUR to attempt it. Inside the top 50 with just two weeks left in the regular season, Detry’s hopes at a TOUR card in 2024 are all but assured.

    His T13 at the Open Championship last week, his best major championship finish, puts him in a position to potentially receive exemptions into next year’s Designated events as well.

    Vincent Norrman

    FedExCup rank: 59th

    One of only two rookies to win on TOUR this season, Norrman has made a late-season charge in the Rookie of the Year conversation. A winner two weeks ago at the Barbasol Championship, the 25-year-old jumped from 111th to 60th in the FedExCup.

    Now with his TOUR card locked up for next season, Norrman is in a position to pick off several more accolades. And he’s in no mood to rest. Norrman was in the field the week after the Barbasol, finishing T25 at the Barracuda Championship. He will play again this week at the 3M Open.


    Vincent Norrman wins Barbasol Championship


    The long-hitting Swede should be a course fit at TPC Twin Cities, which has seen big hitters like Tony Finau and Cameron Champ win the last two years. Norrman ranks 11th in driving distance.

    While not among the top rookies in the FedExCup, Norrman has what most of the rookies don’t – a win. Nico Echavarria is the only other rookie to do so with a victory at the Puerto Rico Open.

    If a premium is put on winning, Norrman jumps to the front of the pack in the Rookie of the Year conversation. The way his season is going as of late, finishing as the top rookie in the FedExCup isn’t out of the question either. That would all but lock up the award for Norrman.

    Ludvig Aberg

    FedExCup rank: 146th

    At best, Aberg’s case for Rookie of the Year is incomplete.

    The 23-year-old has been remarkably consistent in his first season on TOUR; it just hasn’t lasted long enough. Like an NBA rookie that plays only 20 games or a September call-up in the MLB, no matter how well they play, the slim body of work often prohibits them from receiving end-of-the-year awards.

    That’s where Aberg finds himself. Just two months ago Aberg was wrapping up his senior season at Texas Tech. Finishing as the top college golfer in the 2023 PGA TOUR University rankings earned him immediate status on TOUR and immediate success followed.

    Ludvig Aberg’s Round 2 highlights from John Deere

    In his five professional starts, he’s finished inside the top 25 three times, including a T4 at the John Deere Classic. He’s shown notable progress week-over-week. First, carding three consecutive rounds of 67 or better at the Travelers Championship, and then finding himself T3 headed into the weekend at Rocket Mortgage. A disappointing weekend resulted in a T40, but Aberg bounced back the next week, parlaying a top 5 through two rounds at the John Deere Classic into a T4 finish, the first top 5 of his career.

    Yet with the lack of starts, Aberg is still just 145th in the FedExCup standings. That’s a tough road to climb to qualify for the Playoffs, but counting him out would be a mistake, given his track record.