Rahm v Smith for European Tour Rookie of Year award

Press Release 

European Tour stars Jon Rahm and Jordan Smith are set for an exciting battle in the race for the 2017 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award, with the list of contenders finalised following changes to the eligibility criteria.

Rahm, winner of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by the Rory Foundation – the third of eight Rolex Series events on the European Tour - and Smith, last year’s European Challenge Tour Number One, who won the Porsche European Open last month, are the current leading rookies.

Spaniard Rahm, currently third on the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex, sits 1,685,564 points ahead of Englishman Smith, who has already secured his Tour card for next year with his maiden victory, with Swede Alexander Björk, Frenchman Matthieu Pavon and Australian Sam Brazel rounding out the top five contenders.

The European Tour’s Tournament Committee recently clarified the eligibility criteria for the prestigious end-of-season accolade, previously won by a host of star names including Major Champions Sir Nick Faldo (1977), Sandy Lyle (1978), José Maria Olazábal (1986), Sergio Garcia (1999), Martin Kaymer (2007) and Brooks Koepka (2014), as well as by eight time European Tour Number One Colin Montgomerie (1988) and the current European Ryder Cup Captain Thomas Bjørn (1996).

As with last year, it will be presented to the highest ranked rookie on the final Race to Dubai Ranking in any one season. To qualify as a rookie, a player must:

- Be in their first year of Ranked or Affiliate Membership of the European Tour.
- Not have previously played in more than seven Race to Dubai tournaments as a professional in any one prior season.
- Not have previously held Ranked Membership of any other Federation Tour for more than five years.
- Have taken up membership prior to May 1 in the year in question or have won a tournament after this date and then taken up the related membership.

Named after the three-time Open Champion Sir Henry Cotton, the award has been won by no fewer than 21 Ryder Cup players since it was first presented in 1960. Last year’s winner was South Korean Jeunghun Wang, who won twice on the European Tour in 2016 and finished 16^th on the Race to Dubai.

Top ten eligible players for the 2017 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award (as of Thursday August 17, 2017):

ROTY	R2D	Name	Country	Played	Points
1	3	Jon Rahm	(ESP)	(9)	2761857.31
2	16	Jordan Smith	(ENG)	(22)	1076293.91
3	33	Alexander Björk	(SWE)	(20)	688967.80
4	41	Matthieu Pavon	(FRA)	(20)	572196.00
5	42	Sam Brazel	(AUS)	(16)	566563.03
6	103	Phachara Khongwatmai	(THA)	(10)	230167.49
7	106	Harold Varner III	(USA)	(2)	219144.20
8	115	Austin Connelly	(CAN)	(8)	189170.04
9	117	Pep Angles	(ESP)	(20)	186262.77
10	126	Nathan Kimsey	(ENG)	(19)	164133.76