This article is part of our Golf Draft Kit series.
This article covers international players who did not have a PGA Tour card last season but earned one for 2015-16. International players not covered here include, 1) PGA Tour veterans (e.g., Rory McIlroy), 2) PGA Tour rookies (Rhein Gibson, et al.), 3) 2015-16 tour card winners who chose not to take up membership but will play majors and WGCs (e.g., Danny Willett).
The 2015-16 International Newcomers was updated following the fall schedule.
Anirban Lahiri
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $2,700,000
This is a unique case where one of the best players in the world -- Lahiri is ranked 39th -- is going to be a Reshuffle List player, having earned his card through the Web.com Tour Finals. A Presidents Cup member, Lahiri is a star in India and was my sleeper pick for all four majors last season. He earned his card via a T6 finish at the first Web.com Tour Finals event, the Hotel Fitness Championship, on the back of a T5 finish at the PGA Championship. Last year, he won both his home country's open and in Malaysia and finished fifth at the Omega European Masters in Switzerland. Winner of the Long Drive Competition at the PGA, Lahiri averaged 64.63 percent of his fairways and 65.79 percent of his greens in his appearances on the PGA Tour last season. This guy is going to win a major, folks.
Fall Update: Lahiri most notably played a part in the Internationals' losing the Presidents Cup after missing a short putt on
This article covers international players who did not have a PGA Tour card last season but earned one for 2015-16. International players not covered here include, 1) PGA Tour veterans (e.g., Rory McIlroy), 2) PGA Tour rookies (Rhein Gibson, et al.), 3) 2015-16 tour card winners who chose not to take up membership but will play majors and WGCs (e.g., Danny Willett).
The 2015-16 International Newcomers was updated following the fall schedule.
Anirban Lahiri
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $2,700,000
This is a unique case where one of the best players in the world -- Lahiri is ranked 39th -- is going to be a Reshuffle List player, having earned his card through the Web.com Tour Finals. A Presidents Cup member, Lahiri is a star in India and was my sleeper pick for all four majors last season. He earned his card via a T6 finish at the first Web.com Tour Finals event, the Hotel Fitness Championship, on the back of a T5 finish at the PGA Championship. Last year, he won both his home country's open and in Malaysia and finished fifth at the Omega European Masters in Switzerland. Winner of the Long Drive Competition at the PGA, Lahiri averaged 64.63 percent of his fairways and 65.79 percent of his greens in his appearances on the PGA Tour last season. This guy is going to win a major, folks.
Fall Update: Lahiri most notably played a part in the Internationals' losing the Presidents Cup after missing a short putt on the final hole in his match against Chris Kirk. He rebounded, though, to tie for 21st at the CIMB Classic and 40th the next week at the HSBC Champions.
Branden Grace
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $2,300,000
Grace is most known -- unfortunately for him -- as the man who drove it onto the train tracks on the 16th hole on Sunday at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. It cost him a chance at his first major, but the upside is that finish clinched his PGA Tour card for 2015-16 via the Non-Member FedEx Cup points list. A Presidents Cup member, Grace had a strong season overall, finishing third at the PGA Championship, T4 at the U.S. Open, T7 at the RBC Heritage, T9 at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play, T20 at the Open Championship and T17 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He also won on the European Tour earlier this year in Qatar. If he plays enough on the PGA Tour -- and that's a big key -- the South African has a chance to not only be a PGA Tour winner but a major champion, too.
Fall Update: Grace had a solid fall, tying for 17th in Malaysia and fifth in the HSBC Champions, an event in which he opened with 63.
Emiliano Grillo
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $1,500,000
Shortly after he beat Chez Reavie by birdieing the 72nd hole at the Web.com Tour Championship, respected Golf Channel analyst Aaron Oberholser tweeted "There's your rookie of the year next year on the PGA Tour. Emiliano Grillo." Technically, he won't be a rookie -- he played too many events last year on the PGA Tour to still qualify for that status -- but the point still holds: this first-year player has a ton of game. One of the losers in the five-man playoff earlier this season at the Puerto Rico Open (fellow Web.com Tour Finals graduate Sam Saunders was another), Grillo earned enough points through that event and other finishes to make it to the Finals, where he won in style in the final-round of the final event, capping off a four-event run where he went 9-T2-missed cut-1, a dazzling stretch of golf that proves how much talent he has. At TPC Sawgrass, he was T4 in driving accuracy, 17th in driving distance, T1 in greens in regulation and 14th in putts per GIR. And he has momentum headed into fall. PGA Tour: watch out. He starts the season second on the Reshuffle List.
Fall Update: Well, this has already been a smashing success. Grillo won the Frys.com Open in his first start of the year on the PGA Tour, earning basically a three-year exemption, a trip to the Masters, Maui, The Players, the PGA and so much more. It's the start of a good season for both him and anyone whose fantasy league included fall events.
Cameron Smith
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $1,200,000
Smith left the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay a big winner, nearly making an albatross on the 72nd hole, tapping in for an eagle that led to a T4 finish that clinched his PGA Tour card for the 2015-16 season via the Non-Member FedEx Cup points list. Lost in all that is that Smith nearly won on the PGA Tour last fall, at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia where he tied for fifth. He also tied for 15th at the RBC Heritage and tied for 18th at the Wyndham Championship. He ranked 21st in greens in regulation and 18th in putts per green in regulation at the U.S. Open. This Australian may take a while to get familiar with the venues in the U.S., but don't be surprised if he sneaks up and wins this year. He's that good.
Fall Update: Smith's PGA Tour career has started slowly, as he missed his first two cuts before tying for 37th at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia and tying for 64th at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. Noteworthy, however, is that he went home November and December and finished T36-T13-5 in Australia. Familiarity will breed confidence for Smith, and as he plays more in the U.S., expect that trend to continue on the PGA Tour in 2016.
Hiroshi Iwata
2015-16 Proj. Earnings: $300,000
It might feel like it was years ago, but just last fall Iwata nearly won the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. He did not. Bubba Watson did. But that finish did help put him into the Web.com Tour Finals, where he parlayed a T4 finish at the opening event, the Hotel Fitness Championship, into a PGA Tour card for next season. Iwata only made three more starts on the PGA Tour last season, missing the cut in the first two before finishing T21 at the PGA Championship in August, a week where he ranked eighth in strokes-gained putting. Coming to a new Tour, there will be a learning curve, but he certainly has the talent to compete with the big boys. He starts the 2015-2016 PGA Tour season 22nd on the Reshuffle List.
Fall Update: Iwata made five fall starts with three finishes in the money, the best a T44 at the RSM Classic. He needs to improve on his ball-striking in 2016 as he ranked 179th in strokes gained-tee to green in fall, losing nearly a shot per round to the field in that area.
