Golf Draft Kit: 2015-16 Rookies -- Fall Update

The 2015-16 Rookies was updated following the fall schedule.

Harold Varner III
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $1,200,000

By far the player with the most publicity out of this group -- Varner is the first African-American to earn his card via the Web.com Tour -- Varner's on-the-course play should not be overlooked. He has the potential to be THE superstar to come out of this group. While he didn't win on the Web.com Tour in 2015, consistency was the name of the game. He finished second in his first start of the season, the Panama Claro Championship, and notched two other top-10s and nine top-25s in 25 starts. He had to hold his breath at the end -- he got the 25th and final card from the Web.com Tour regular-season money list -- but had a solid Web.com Tour Finals, going T22-T16-T16-missed cut. At 48th in total driving and 38th in the all-around ranking, Varner has the potential to win in 2015-2016 if he can putt a little better and hit more fairways (he ranked 111th and 102nd in those two categories, respectively). Varner starts the new PGA Tour season 31st on the Reshuffle List.

Fall Update: Varner's rise in the Reshuffle List to fifth -- the sign of a strong fall campaign -- came virtue of a T5 in Mayakoba with three other money finishes. The finish at Mayakoba included a Friday 62. Varner, one of the most talked about rookies on the PGA Tour this year because of his outgoing and engaging personality, has the game to back it up, too. At the OHL Classic he ranked third in driving distance and T8 in driving accuracy, a nice combination. For the season he ranks 32nd in ball-striking. That work has led to more guaranteed starts in the beginning of 2016. He also lost in a playoff late in the year at the Australian PGA -- more added experience to go on this season.

Patton Kizzire
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $750,000

Fully exempt (aka not subject to the Reshuffle List) and in The Players as the leading regular-season money winner, things are nice at the moment for Kizzire. A strong Web.com Tour season, highlighted by two wins, first at the Utah Championship in early August in a playoff where he shot a second-round 62 and then three weeks later at the News Sentinel Open where he won in style, shooting two 64s on the weekend. He earned $518,241 in 23 starts this season, and ranked first on the Web.com Tour in putting average and eighth in greens in regulation. If he can adapt to the new golf courses he'll be facing quickly, Kizzire has the game to make it on the big stage. Want further proof? Take note of this consistency: 23 starts, two wins, two seconds, a third and 12 top-10s.

Fall Update: Kizzire already has a taste of what victory is like on the PGA Tour ... from sitting in the tent by the driving range as his friend Smylie Kaufman waited to see if his Sunday 61 would hold up for the victory in Vegas. It did, and he was instantly motivated by seeing how quickly one's fortunes can change -- in this case to the positive side -- on the PGA Tour. Kizzire didn't have that too shabby a start to his PGA Tour season himself, with a T2 in Vegas and a T4 at the Sanderson Farms Championship to start off his career as a member. Already having earned nearly $525K, it wouldn't be surprising if a victory was soon in Kizzire's future.

Bronson Burgoon
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $560,000

Victory can be sweet, and second -- especially via a playoff loss -- can be crushing, but for Burgoon he can look back and and view his two second-place finishes as the source of his PGA Tour card. A playoff loss at the Nova Scotia Open on July 4th weekend and a solo second at Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship (the second Web.com Tour Finals event) helped punch his ticket to the PGA Tour, aided by four other top-10 finishes in 25 starts. He ranked sixth in greens in regulation and 11th in the all-around ranking on the Web.com Tour in 2015, and if he can improve on his 60.64 percent driving accuracy that ranked 90th, we see a possibility for big things in 2015-2016 for Burgoon. He begins the PGA Tour season 13th on the Reshuffle List, a pretty good spot.

Fall Update: Burgoon had a topsy-turvy fall. When he was good, he was good. When he was off, he missed the cut. In five starts he missed three cuts and had T20 and T25 finishes in his two events in the money at Sanderson Farms and Mayakoba, totaling 71 FedEx Cup points and more than $94K. He is a solid 19th on the Reshuffle List and is 47th in greens in regulation. Improve on his consistency and we could see some nice play from Burgoon in the new year.

Dawie Van Der Walt
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $500,000

van der Walt also won twice in 2015, nabbing victories in his first start of the year, the Chile Classic, where he shot a 64 to open and 65 to close, and the Price Cutter Charity Championship in mid-August where he opened in 63. He sprinkled in four other top-10s and two more top-25s in 19 starts. He was third in greens in regulation, impressive since he ranked 42nd in driving accuracy and 68th in driving distance, putting him 32nd on tour in total driving. Those stats must improve if he wants to find consistency on the PGA Tour in 2015-16. On the plus side: He'll be first in the Reshuffle List to start the season. And that means more starts in the crucial fall slate.

Fall Update: Van der Walt had a quiet early fall -- he began his PGA Tour season with two missed cuts -- before closing out the season with three starts that were much better, going T33-T17-T58. That T17 at Mayakoba included an opening 66 and a third-round 64. Van der Walt is is now 14th on the Reshuffle List and 63rd in scoring average and 80th in the all-around ranking. See how he plays early in 2016 -- if you like what you see, he could be a sleeper.

Rhein Gibson
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $500,000

Gibson finished 10th on Web.com Tour Finals list to clinch his PGA Tour card for 2015-2016. Missed cut-T21-T9-4 is how his four-event Finals stretch went, with the Web.com Tour Championship the highlight, shooting weekend rounds of 65-65 to secure the card. That was a week when he ranked first in birdies and first in putts per green in regulation. Conversely, he ranked 133rd in driving accuracy and 98th in greens in regulation for the season, two areas he will need to improve on the PGA Tour to have a successful season. But with momentum and a ranking of 18th on the Reshuffle List, Gibson is someone to keep an eye on early on.

Fall Update: Gibson is an interesting case because of how different hemispheres could help one's game. Gibson didn't have a good fall campaign, missing four straight cuts before finishing T58 at The RSM Classic. He ranked no better than 70th in any key statistical category (driving distance) and was 100-plus in all the others. But he's Australian, and his trip down under in November and December was productive, finishing T8 at the Emirates Australian Open and 44th at the Australian PGA in tough conditions. Perhaps Gibson can ride that momentum into the Sony Open. He'll need to, at 37th in the Reshuffle List standings he needs all the help he can get.

Brett Stegmaier
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $400,000

Four top-10s and eight top-25s, including an eighth, a fifth and a T18 in the Web.com Tour Finals clinched his card. His path to the PGA Tour came on the Web.com Tour Finals money list, where he finished ninth. So what changed to get him a card? For one thing, a game that had him ranked 85th in greens in regulation and 126th in putting average came alive. Take the fifth-place showing at the second Finals event, the Small Business Connection Championship at River Run. He was 21st in GIR and 11th in putts per GIR that week. He's certainly got momentum entering the PGA Tour's fall slate, so he may be someone to watch early if you like his form. He enters 16th on the Reshuffle List, a nice spot.

Fall Update: Stegmaier is second on the Reshuffle List, rising 11 spots in the fall portion of the 2015-16 PGA Tour season. Impressively, he made the cut in all five events he played, his best finish a T2 in Las Vegas where he shot opening rounds of 66 and ranked 15th in strokes gained-tee to green and 11th in strokes gained-putting for the week. Stegmaier is someone to watch in 2016 as he's already contended and gotten a taste of Sunday pressure on the PGA Tour.

Thomas Aiken

2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $400,000

Aiken utilized nearly every avenue available to him to get onto the PGA Tour for 2015-2016. A European Tour member, he tied for 23rd at Doral, 26th at Memorial, 25th at the U.S. Open and 80th at the Open Championship, earning 134 Non-Member FedEx Cup points, enough to get into the Web.com Tour Finals. There, he essentially put himself being the 8-ball after missing the cut in his first three Finals events before rallying to finish T5 at the Web.com Tour Championship to get his card. That's getting it done, especially on venues he's probably never seen before, something he'll face once again now as a member of the PGA Tour for the first time. Not in his favor? He's 44th in the Reshuffle List. Beware of that.

Fall Update: Aiken, an international player from South Africa, finished T54 at the HSBC Champions, missed the cut at the OHL Classic and then finished T58 at the RSM Classic. He is 30th on the Reshuffle List and will need to have a solid west coast trip to expand his playing opportunities for the rest of the year. Those considering him for non-majors/WGC events should make sure to keep an eye on entry lists.

Smylie Kaufman
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $350,000

The best name of all the rookies joining the PGA Tour for next season also has the game to back it up. A win in May at the United Leasing Championship included a Saturday 64 and his second-place finish in August at the Price Cutter Charity Championship cinched his card. Consistency will be what he has to improve on to thrive on the PGA Tour, as he missed a staggering 10 cuts in 20 starts on the Web.com Tour in 2015. The culprit? He ranked 106th in driving accuracy (59.01 percent) and 99th in greens in regulation (67.54 percent). Both those figures must go up for Kaufman to be a player on the PGA Tour in 2015-2016. Kaufman begins the season 11th on the Reshuffle List.

Fall Update: Kaufman had one of the all-time great starts to a PGA Tour career, shooting a Sunday 61 and then waiting to see if it would hold it up to win the Shriners Open in Las Vegas. It did. Now he has job security, a card for basically three years, a Masters invite and so much more. He has the game to back up the name -- he ranked 11th in strokes gained-tee to green and eighth in strokes gained-putting that week -- and now with a relaxed attitude, he may well contend frequently in 2016.

Kelly Kraft
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $350,000

If Kraft's name is familiar that's because he won the 2011 U.S. Amateur at Erin Hills over Patrick Cantlay. On the Web.com Tour in 2015 he got a win and a second, the victory coming in the Chitimacha Louisiana Open in March when he shot a Sunday 65 and the second-place finish coming in the BMW Charity Pro-Am nearly two months later. He finished the year with three top-10s and eight top-25s in 23 starts, earning more than $240K and a 19th starting spot on the Reshuffle List. As a result, he'll need a strong fall to gain more starts in the early portion of the 2016 schedule, and that'll require some better ball-striking. He ranked 66th in driving distance, 94th in driving accuracy and 88th in greens in regulation. Those numbers need to improve on the PGA Tour.

Fall Update: Kraft fell 18 spots to 34th on the Reshuffle List, a major trouble area in terms of getting starts in the next period of events. He missed his first two cuts before going T33-T68 at Sanderson Farms and Mayakoba before missing the cut in Sea Island to end 2015. The culprit is poor tee-to-green play -- he's 31st in strokes gained-putting -- that has him ranked 222nd in driving accuracy, 128th in greens in regulation and 163rd in strokes gained–tee to green. He has a couple weeks to fix that before some of the most crucial weeks of his PGA Tour season begin.

Rob Oppenheim
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $300,000

Oppenheim has probably the best story of anyone who got through via the Web.com Tour Finals Money List. He's tried, for YEARS, to make it to the PGA Tour and yet he's come up short. At the Web.com Tour Championship, it looked like he would suffer the same fate after he struggled down the stretch on Sunday. But then Lucas Glover bogeyed 17 and 18, eventually falling into a tie for 12th, which changed Oppenheim's earnings for the week and ensured he got his PGA Tour card for 2015-2016. Oppenheim won the Air Capital Classic in June, a week that included a Sunday 64, and had a T13 in August at the News Sentinel Open. But those were his only highlights until the Finals, where Oppenheim pieced together finishes of T74-T25-T47-T12 to earn his PGA Tour playing privileges. His stats aren't flashy -- he's sixth in putting average but 100-plus in several tee-to-green stats -- but if there's someone who'll probably feel like the Frys.com Open is a vacation, it's him. Let's all hope he plays well because this is one great story. He starts the season 47th on the Reshuffle List.

Fall Update: Oppenheim moved up 17 spots on the Reshuffle List during fall to 27th, gaining more than 33 points. That was big for him -- he only had two starts and made the cut in both, finishing T54 at Sanderson Farms and T44 at The RSM Classic -- as he needed to take advantage of every start he could get. That's what he'll need to do starting at the Sony Open -- pounce on his limited opportunities and parlay that into additional starts.

Lucas Lee
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $250,000

If you're in the market for someone with momentum ... Lucas is not that person. He withdrew from the final three Web.com Tour Finals events, two after playing just one round and one -- the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship -- after three. No reason was given, but it's something to watch. He earned his card via two second-place finishes in consecutive starts -- a T2 at the Greater Dallas Open and a second at the Rust-Oleum Championship -- but the withdrawals have him 45th on the Reshuffle List to start the season and a steep hill to climb starting out.

Fall Update: Lee only made two fall starts, missing the cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship and tying for 52nd at the RSM Classic. At 36th on the Reshuffle List, he'll need to use all starts available in the first part of 2016 (with Sony and the CareerBuilder Challenge probably up first) to save his season and earn more starts in the Southern Swing.

Michael Kim
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $100,000

Kim didn't win in 2015 but did nab two thirds and three other top-10 finishes. All told, he made 19 cuts in 24 starts, earned more than $190K and will start the 2015-16 PGA Tour season 33rd on the Reshuffle List. Like several others, strong play in fall would greatly help his chance of getting the proper number of starts to make a run at keeping his card. His game is actually pretty solid statistically: fifth in greens in regulation, 11th in putting average, fourth in birdie average and third in scoring average. Hit a couple more fairways on the big circuit and maybe the bounces will come his way next season. But it'll have to happen quickly or that first reshuffle at the end of 2015 will make it much harder in 2016.

Fall Update: Kim made the cut in all five fall starts with a T16 in Vegas being his standout finish in a slate mostly filled with T50s and T60s. Still, all money and points are good, and, believe it or not, it moved him up 17 spots in the Reshuffle List standings to 13th. His statistical ranks aren't that impressive except for being 39th in strokes gained-putting, so Kim will need to get a bit more consistent to contend.

Abraham Ancer
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $75,000

A dual U.S./Mexican citizen, Ancer won in a playoff at the Nova Scotia Open on July 4th weekend. He also finished second at the Brasil Champions in March. We lead with that because a hallmark of his season -- unfortunately for him -- was inconsistency. He missed 14 cuts in 25 starts, which must be improved upon for someone who will start the 2015-16 PGA Tour season 29th on the Reshuffle List. Why the struggles at times? He ranked 66th in greens in regulation and a staggering 97th in putting average (there's no ShotLink on the Web.com Tour, thus no strokes gained stats). He also ranked 107th in birdie average and 62nd in scoring average. He needs a hot start or his appearances on the PGA Tour in early 2016 won't be as many as he'd like.

Fall Update: Ancer made five starts ... and missed the cut in all five, ending up with no FedEx Cup points nor money and ranking 43rd on the Reshuffle List. What does it all mean? He must play well in the limited amount of starts available in the early portion of the 2016 schedule to save his season. What's the problem? He ranks no better than 178th in any major statistical category, coming in at 187th in strokes gained–tee to green and 181st in strokes gained-putting. Ouch.

Andrew Landry
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $35,000

Landry won in his third start of the year, the Cartagena de Indias at Karibana Championship, which was his only top-10 of the season. Like several rookies who'll be on the PGA Tour this year, consistency will be important. He made 14 cuts in 23 starts but only had five top-25s, indicative of finishes that were in the money but not in contention. Why? He was 76th in greens in regulation, 123rd in sand save percentage and 84th in scrambling. On tougher PGA Tour courses, that must improve, as his spot 43rd on the Reshuffle List requires quick, strong play.

Fall Update: Ditto for Landry. Three starts. Zero made cuts. He's fifth in strokes gained-putting but 205th (of 216) in strokes gained-tee to green. That won't get it done.