European Tour pros dispute Rahm rookie award

The decision by the European Tour to award Jon Rahm the Rookie of the Year has, it’s safe to say, caused a bit of a stir.

The 23-year-old was presented with the trophy by European Tour chief Keith Pelley yesterday as closest rivals Dylan Frittelli, Jordan Smith, Hideto Tanihara and Ryan Fox are unable to overhaul him in the Race to Dubai this week.

The season-long Order of Merit is the measure as to who wins the award with Rahm, currently No.4 in the rankings, some €1.5m ahead of Frittelli in 20th place.

It all seems pretty clear cut, especially considering he won the Irish Open in such dominant fashion back in July.

However, that was one of just four regular season European Tour events he played in 2017 – along with the French Open, Italian Open and Andalucia Valderrama Masters – which led players to call for the award to go to Jordan Smith who, after this week, will have played 30 regular season events.

Richard Bland was the first to have his say, tweeting:

It was retweeted by Matt Fitzpatrick and ‘liked’ by the likes of Ross Fisher, Scott Hend and Thomas Pieters, who then tweeted:

And then Eddie Pepperell did tweet his thoughts, backing Bland’s comments.

What do you think?

Was Rahm a deserving winner of the Rookie of the Year? Or should it, as the tour pros above believe, have been awarded to a player who competes more regularly on the European Tour? Let us know in the ‘Comments’ section below.