Quarterly "Player-of-the-Year" Update: Jon Rahm out in front
02 Apr 2015
by Conner Penfold of AmateurGolf.com
see also: Jon Rahm Rankings
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Arizona State junior Jon Rahm
CARLSBAD, Calif. — Tying for fifth as an
amateur in a PGA Tour event will go a long way
in raising your amateur ranking. But that's not
all Jon Rahm has done in the 2015 calendar
year.
The Arizona State junior from Spain has runner-
up finishes
in two top-tier
college events, including the elite Southern
Highlands
Collegiate Masters, as
well as The Prestige at PGA West. Recently he
picked up his
fifth individual
win since joining the program at the Duck
Invitational at
Eugene Country Club,
site of the 2015 Pacific Coast Amateur and 2016
NCAA
Division I National
Championship.
But the bulk of his 2015 points have come from
an
incredible tied-for-fifth
finish at the PGA Tour's
Waste Management
Open, a
tournament he was
granted a sponsor's exemption to play in. After
opening with
70-68 to make
the cut by five shots, Rahm closed with 66-68 on
the
weekend to finish three
behind the winner Brooks Koepka.
Rahm has a solid 585 point lead for 2015
AmateurGolf.com
Player-of-the-Year
honors through the first three months of the
season before
the year really kicks
off.
With seven amateurs teeing it up next week at
The
Masters,
followed by major
conference championships beginning in mid-
April, the 2015
amateur golf
campaign is just getting started.
Below are the remaining top-five, starting with
Stanford's
red-hot sophomore.
2.
Maverick McNealy
| Portola
Valley, Calif. | -585
McNealy is having a remarkable sophomore
campaign with
the Cardinal. Wins at
The Prestige
at PGA
West and The Goodwin, as well as as runner-up
finish at the
Amer Ari
Invitational in Hawaii,
have
pushed the son of Sun Microsystems co-founder
Scott
McNealy to second in the
world in 2015.
McNealy is using these wins to build upon an
already-impressive run
started at
the beginning of
the
2014-2015 season when he captured the Fighting
Illini
Invitational and the
Southwestern
Intercollegiate.
3.
Cameron Davis |
Sydney,
Australia | -880
The 19-year-old Aussie has taken advantage of
Australia's
summer months to
climb to the third
spot.
He's been prolific in the first three months of the
year,
playing in six events
in his home
country
and two in Argentina. His main accomplishment
came at the
Australian
Amateur,
where he
defeated
New Zealand's Tyler Hodge in the 36-hole final
on the first
extra hole at The
Australian Golf
Club —
his home course. He earned medalist honors at
the New
South Wales Amateur and has top-five finishes
at the Lake Macquarie Amateur and Ten
Nations
Cup.
4.
Beau Hossler | Mission
Viejo, Calif. |
-945
Hossler made headlines at the 2012 U.S. Open
as a high-schooler out of Southern California
when at 17 he became the youngest player to
make the cut
since the World War II era.
Now, a sophomore at the University of Texas,
Hossler
picked up his first collegiate win of
his career at the John Hayt and was runner-up to
Alabama's
Robby Shelton at the Southern
Highlands Collegiate Masters and Lee McCoy at
the Linger
Longer Invitational. He's a two-time Southern
California Amateur champion and in August
will look to defend his
prestigious title at the Western Amateur.
5.
Cheng-Tsung Pan |
Miaoli County,
Taiwan | -1145
The Washington Husky senior is a three-time
winner
already, including victories at the Amer Ari
Invitational and the Querencia Cabo Collegiate.
He and
teammate Corey Pereira, the 2014 Pacific
Coast Amateur champion, were co-champions at
the San
Diego State hosted Lamkin Classic, as
well. Pan, a native of Taiwan, will hope to have
one last crack at the
NCAA National Championship with his
Huskies in May, having plenty of experience
from winning
the East Regional in 2013.
6.
Romain
Langasque, France
7.
Robby
Shelton,
Alabama
8.
Gary
Hurley,
Ireland
9.
Lee
McCoy,
Georgia
10.
Ben
Eccles,
Australia
Click the link below for a full list of 2015 World
Player-of-
the-Year Rankings.
FULL
RANKINGS