Tiger Woods pulling out of the Safeway Open
cracked open the door for a 25-year-old named Max Homa to enter the
tournament this week. You might not know who Max Homa is, and you
certainly don’t know as much about him as you do about Tiger Woods, but
he is one of a host of under-25 golfers trying to get that elusive win
and lock up a PGA Tour card for the next two years.
The
professional golf ranks are rife with golfers like Homa. Some you have
heard of. Some you need to get to know. Some bounce from PGA Tour to
Web.com Tour to PGA Tour Latinoamerica (Jordan Spieth was in this
position just a few years ago). Some never
make it. Some go on to become
stars.
Golf is wily in ways that make it nearly impossible to
predict who will hit it big, but here are five guys playing their first
full seasons this year that I’m keeping my eye on going into the first
event of 2016-17.
Bryson DeChambeau (age: 23): The one everyone knows about. DeChambeau is going to try and build a brand
and a career at the same time. He’s going the Rickie Fowler route. That
has gone well for Fowler and should go well for DeChambeau given his
outrageous talent. He won in the first Web.com playoff event to get his
first professional victory under his belt. I’m picking him to make the
2018 Ryder Cup team.
Jon Rahm (21): The Spaniard is the European
DeChambeau … but probably better. Finished top five at the Phoenix
Open as an amateur. Finished T3 at the Quicken Loans National last year.
Finished T2 at the Canadian Open. Has 2018 Ryder Cup star written all
over him. He hits it forever (averaged 307 yards off the tee in limited
play in 2016) and has that “screw you” attitude all the great ones have.
I would be stunned if he didn’t win three or more times on the PGA Tour
in his career.
Wesley Bryan (26): He got an
automatic PGA Tour status after winning three times on the Web.com Tour
last season. Bryan doesn’t possess the ceiling of DeChambeau or Rahm,
but he clearly has the drive. His story of going from trick-shot artist to three-time pro winner is remarkable.
His meteoric rise also explains away the age thing a little bit. He’s a
late bloomer, but that doesn’t take the shine off of what he has
accomplished.
Cheng Tsung Pan (24): Gained the
most strokes on the Web.com Tour although not the most strokes per
round. Won twice in Canada in 2015 and has made two of three U.S. Open
cuts and won eight times at the University of Washington in his college
career. He was the No. 1 amateur golfer in the world for a while in
2013. Not necessarily a future superstar, but he certainly could be a
mainstay on the PGA Tour for decades.
Most strokes gained during the 2016 https://t.co/BTYnexWHNO Tour season: pic.twitter.com/OoyNSLl1Dy— Josh Culp (@futureoffantasy) October 10, 2016
Grayson Murray (23):
He is my sleeper this week at the Safeway Open. Murray won the final
event on the Web.com Tour last year and finished in the top 10 in four
of his last seven. He was one of only two golfers (Bryan) to gain over
two strokes per round on the rest of the field last season on the
Web.com Tour. Finished No. 18 on the Web.com Tour money list last year
and could have pretty easily won a handful of tournaments.
All
five of these golfers will be in the field with Homa (and without Tiger)
at the Safeway Open this week trying to get off to a fast start on the
2016-17 season.
