AOY Update: Lake Seminole
Bolton leads AOY, Burghoff leads Polaris FLW Tour Rookie of the Year race
Bryan Thrift’s bomb at the third stop of the FLW Tour on Seminole may ripple through the minds of fans for a while, but the other contenders for Angler of the Year pretty much stayed on fire. In the lead, Terry Bolton banked his second top 10 of the year and padded his lead. Behind him, Scott Martin earned his second top 10 in a row to push him into the runner-up spot as he pursues his second AOY title on Tour.
With Grand Lake and then Cherokee next on the schedule, here’s how the race is shaping up.
579 points – Terry Bolton
Leading the way, Terry Bolton is without a doubt off to the best start of his long career. After winning at Sam Rayburn (his first career Tour win), Bolton made the cut and finished 19th at Toho. At Seminole, the Kentucky pro snuck into the top 10 via tiebreaker and then dropped the biggest bag of the tournament on the final day to move up to 4th and pad his lead over Martin with a few more points.
After Toho, Bolton led by just four points, but he’s ticked his lead up to 11 points now. That’s not a wide margin, especially this early, but he’s got the potential to keep working on that margin. Known for his prowess with a crankbait and a blade, Grand Lake could set up very well for him. Cherokee seems well within his skillset, and he made the cut when the Tour last hit Chickamauga and Champlain.
568 points – Scott Martin
Moving up to second from a third-place tie with Thrift, Martin is in a great position to earn the second AOY of his career. Back-to-back top-10 finishes at Toho and Seminole have him rolling into Grand Lake, but how he’s positioned there is a bit of a mystery. Martin finished 36th in June of 2013 (the last time the Tour stopped there), but the tournament is much earlier in the season this time around. One good indicator might be his success at Beaver Lake – historically, the two have enough similarities that it wouldn’t be out of the question to suggest that Grand is in Martin’s wheelhouse as well.
555 points – Joseph Webster
Had Joseph Webster not caught just one fish on day three at Seminole, he may have had a shot to push Bolton for the lead. As is, he’s finished inside the top 30 in every event and earned one top 10 so far. Webster seems primed to do it big this year, but he’s never been to Grand before. Of course, it’s still easy to buy into a Webster AOY run – he’s demonstrated such a variety of skills throughout his short career that nothing seems really outside his abilities.
534 points – Billy McCaghren and Miles Burghoff
Sitting 45 points off Bolton and wrapped up in a virtual tie for 4th place are veteran Billy McCaghren and rookie Miles Burghoff. McCaghren has made every top 30 this year, but never closed and made it to the final day. Burghoff missed day three at Toho, but fished on Saturday at Rayburn and Seminole. McCaghren would appear to have a head start at Grand based on his previous Ozark experience and veteran status. Other than Toho, Burghoff hasn’t really had a local advantage anywhere this year, so it’s probably easiest to assume he’ll just keep on doing what he’s doing until he doesn’t.
In the wings
Rounding out the top 10 of the AOY race are Buddy Gross, John Cox, Braxton Setzer, Jeremy Lawyer and Tyler Woolcott. Gross and Cox each have tournaments decidedly in their wheelhouse coming up, but Lawyer may be the biggest threat to move up fast. With Grand and Cherokee next up, he’s got a chance to put his Ozark skills to serious use, albeit on fisheries that he doesn’t call home.
Polaris FLW Tour Rookie of the Year update
The race for the Polaris FLW Tour Rookie of the Year award is pretty incredible this year. Miles Burghoff is in the top five in points and in the lead. Behind him, Tyler Woolcott is in the top 10 and Ryan Salzman is in the top 15.
Overall, the ROY hunt is very close and very exciting, as you’d expect with more than 30 rookies on Tour. Looking ahead, a lot of rookies lower in the standings have some home cooking coming up, so Burghoff should probably plan to keep crushing if he wants to win that Polaris Sportsman® 570 and the accompanying trophy.
Here’s how the top 10 rookies are shaping up in the overall AOY standings:
5. Miles Burghoff – 534 points
10. Tyler Woolcott – 498 points
15. Ryan Salzman – 492 points
27. Jon Englund – 452 points
29. Corey Neece – 449 points
30. Sam George – 447 points
34. Wade Strelic – 438 points
39. Austin Wilson – 431 points
44. Ron Nelson – 442 points
46. Bradford Beavers – 420 points